“Dream Ticket” May Have Been Closer Than We Thought

According to CNN, an upcoming book from Obama presidential campaign manager David Plouffe will reveal just how seriously Barack was considering Hillary Clinton for a running mate. Guess who got in the way?

… in the end, it may have been her husband President Clinton — who had made headlines for his outbursts on the campaign trail during the primary season — that ultimately scuttled the possibility.

Portions of Plouffe’s book, The Audacity to Win, will be running in Time magazine, but basically the lowdown is that Obama apparently shocked both his campaign manager — and David Axelrod, Obama’s senior aide — by asserting that Clinton should be included among “potential picks for the No. 2 spot on the ticket.”

“Obama was clearly thinking more seriously about picking Hillary Clinton than Axelrod and I had realized,” Plouffe writes. “He said if his central criterion measured who could be the best VP, she had to be included in that list.”

According to Plouffe and CNN, Obama kept Clinton on the shortlist “throughout the summer of 2008.” She was axed from consideration in August, when Plouffe says there “were just too many complications outweighing the potential strengths.”

But what complication could outweigh Hillary’s strengths as a leader and politician? In this case, says Plouffe — allegedly quoting Obama — “complication” was a four-letter word: B-I-L-L.

“I think Bill may be too big a complication,” Plouffe quotes Obama as saying. “If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship.”

I think it would be monstrous to have a (loud) spouse whose engagement in your career field killed your potential to achieve your ambitions. Did Obama really think that Hillary was going to take orders from Bill or something? Even if she did take his council, like Tina Fey suggested: Aren’t two smart people better than one?

On the other hand, Obama probably had a better idea of how involved he could expect Bill to be than I ever could. Would they have clashed instead of collaborated? Or would having Hill and Bill have felt too much like the weird “ruling families” thing we’ve had going on in this country for so many years now? Don’t tell me: I have to read the book to find out the specifics.

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