Those crafty Clintons. First, Hillary drops the possibility of a joint ticket with Obama into her victory speech in Ohio last week, then Bill goes all wild about the idea, calling a Clinton-Obama ticket "inevitable" or something, and now it's all the Internets can talk about—except of course it's all bullshit. Here's why it makes sense for Hillary to hammer the idea into our heads:

• Name-dropping Obama as a potential running mate suggests a certain inevitability to her nomination
• Offering Obama the bottom slot might comfort undecideds who like his message of hope and change but aren't quite comfortable with his experience, thus potentially swaying them to vote for Hillary instead
• The move offers superdelegates a way to ease their consciences should they overturn the will of the people and tip the nomination to Hillary
• By suggesting they work together, Hillary looks like she's working to unite an increasingly divided party
• For voters who'd like to see both candidates—and there are plenty out there—voting for Hillary offers a better chance at seeing both on the ticket, as there's no way in hell Obama, if nominated, would choose her as his running mate

The idea has been talked about enough that Obama has had to publicly denounce and reject the subject, raising the considerably valid point that the person in second place really has no business offering the bottom half of the ticket to the candidate in the lead. [CNN]