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Hillary and Bill push idea of Clinton, Obama ticket for third time in a week

Monday, March 10th 2008, 4:00 AM

Hillary Clinton is pointing to a victory in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination despite her weekend loss to front-runner Barack Obama in the Wyoming caucuses. Stapleton/Reuters

Hillary Clinton is pointing to a victory in the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination despite her weekend loss to front-runner Barack Obama in the Wyoming caucuses.

Talk about chutzpah! For the third time in a week, the Clintons are pushing the idea of a presidential ticket of Hillary and Barack Obama.

After Hillary twice gave a thumbs up to the idea, Bubba chimed in, saying the duo would be "unstoppable" in the general election. It's the dream team that makes Democratic hearts flutter and brains turn to mush.

It's a dream team all right, as in dream on.

It's a fantasy because, in the Clintons' pitch, naturally, she is on top of the ticket and Obama is her No. 2. That's rich of her, considering that Obama leads in both the delegate race and the popular vote. Forget those pesky voters - Hillary has declared herself the winner!

Shades of the subprime mortgage mess there. She's like a con artist trying to sell a house she doesn't own. Based on the votes so far, she should have suggested herself as the vice presidential running mate.

Ah, but because these are the Clintons talking, we must parse their words to find out what they're up to. No problem. This scam is fairly clever, but too obvious.

The offer of a joint ticket looks like an olive branch, but it's really a knife aimed at cutting Obama down to size. In the words of one Clintonista, "It's a way of belittling him" by suggesting he's not ready to be President and would lose the general election as nominee to John McCain.

It's the same attack she has been using all along, though now it's presented as a compliment. And a generous one, too, because the offer implies she will take him under her wing for eight years.

How sweet.

In truth, it's a sign of her desperation. Hil and Bill suddenly are hot for a joint ticket because they know the cold delegate math. Obama picked up seven delegates to her five by winning the Wyoming caucuses Saturday, and now leads by about 120 total delegates.

That's only part of the bad news for her. Their totals include superdelegates who have committed to them, a category where she leads by about 35. Strip those out, and Obama has a lead of about 155 pledged delegates - or 1,378 to 1,223, according to RealClearPolitics.

That's a big hill for her to climb. The pledged delegates are the earned or won delegates and represent the will of primary and caucus voters. They reflect the popular vote, where Obama has about a 600,000-vote lead out of the 26 million cast.

With party proportion rules making it almost impossible for Clinton to make up the delegate difference through the remaining contests, the only way she can get a majority of total delegates is with a big push from the 800 superdelegates, about 350 of whom are still uncommitted.

While the Clintons realize the supers are not likely to overturn the will of the voters if there is a clear leader, they might go against the front-runner if she can narrow Obama's lead.

One uncommitted superdelegate, for example, told The Washington Post, "If the pledged-delegate total is within 100 votes or whatever, I don't think there's a great deal of significance in that."

Cutting his lead to fewer than 100 is realistic, and it's why Clinton is pushing hard to get do-overs in Florida and Michigan. Those states offer her a chance to close the gap in both the popular vote and delegates.

That's her game. Get it close in delegates and maybe win the popular vote, then turn to the supers for a majority. Meanwhile, she wants to get the party faithful salivating about a happy ending where they can have both Obama and her, as long as she's on top.

Note that Obama hasn't returned the favor, brushing off joint-ticket talk as premature. Smart man. The only way he should agree to her being his No. 2 is with one condition - he gets to hire a food taster.

Source: NYDailynews