Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Hillary Clinton keeps pushing for Barack Obama to agree to be her presidential running mate (embedded hyperlinks removed):

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 subtle yet audacious attempt to stampede Obama into "losing" the primary election. Unfortunately, it's also drastically premature at this stage of the contest. Obama is raising tens of megadollars every month, has a hard-core following of loyal nutballs, and has been trying to do the same thing to Clinton ever since Iowa. Clinton is going to have to generate as least as much pressure on Obama as he has been putting on her if she really expects to knock Obama out of the contest.

On the other hand, Obama did bungle his response to Hillary's invitiation for him to give up:

He [Obama] referenced comments from Bill Clinton in 1992 that his “most important criteria” for vice president was that person must be ready to be commander in chief.

“They have been spending the last two or three weeks” arguing that he is not ready to be commander in chief, Obama said.

“I don’t understand. If I am not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?” Obama asked the crowd, which gave him a standing ovation during his defense. “I don’t understand.”

Does Obama not know the nature of the vice-presidency? Having absolutely no qualifications for being elected president makes one perfectly qualified to be vice-president.