From the Associated Press:

In talking up a joint ticket, the Clintons may be seeking the upper hand, attempting to put her in consideration for the top of the ticket when she so far has failed to win the votes necessary to assure that she would face Republican presidential candidate John McCain in the November election.

The maneuver may also be aimed at countering an image in voters’ minds of Obama as presidential material and at helping restore an aura of inevitability as the party’s nominee that Clinton had early in the campaign but lost.

“The Clintons are in a difficult position,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa, who has tracked the presidential race.

“If she wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she would need Obama’s supporters. But she needs to be careful. If this talk of him on the ticket is seen as a cynical maneuver, it could backfire and hurt her,” Goldford said.

From CBS:

A: Well, you know, I think it’s premature. You won’t see me as a vice presidential candidate — you know, I’m running for president. We have won twice as many states as Senator Clinton, and have a higher popular vote, and I think we can maintain our delegate count — but you know, what I’m really focused on right now, because all that stuff is premature, is winning this nomination and changing the country. And I think that’s what people here are concerned about. How are you going to provide health care to every American? So I spend a lot of time talking about the plan I wanted to put in place that would not only lower costs for those who already have health insurance, but also make sure people who don’t have health insurance can get health care as good as the health care I have as a member of Congress. Those are the kinds of issues that really make a difference in people’s lives, and we’re going to keep on talking about them.

My take? If it works the other way and the slot is open, you take it. You take second base when you are facing the outfield and a VP slot if it is in the vein of Al Gore would give Obama the credentials he is currently lacking when it is his time in the future. Seriously, you take the position it is much easier to run for the White House when you are already spending most of your time there.

Marc Ambinder cites two sources close with McCain who say the Senator will name a VP “Czar” to oversee the selection process of a Vice Presidential candidate. If you remember in 2000 that person was Dick Cheney for George Bush. Cheney’s search lead him to only one viable candidate, himself, let’s see if the same thing happens with McCain’s choice.

CNN’s John Roberts made a mistake today when writing about the historic significance of this election saying “It IS, after all, the first election since 1960 that an incumbent President or Vice President haven’t been in the race.” Which isn’t true, Eisenhower’s Vice President Richard Nixon ran in 1960.

To find a general election in which neither a sitting or former President or Vice President wasn’t running you must go to 1952 the year in which Harry Truman decided he would not run but only after competing in the New Hampshire primary where he lost. In addition Truman’s 74 year-old Vice President Alben William Barkley also ran for the party nomination announcing on July 6 1952. His bid was rejected by part bosses and he withdrew on July 20th of the same year. 1952 was the last election in which no incumbant POTUS or VPOTUS ran in the general election. However to find an election year like 2008 in which no sitting or former POTUS or VPOTUS is up for the nomination, we must look further to 1928

In the 1928 election no sitting or former presidents or Vice Presidents ran for either the party nomination or in the general election in either the Democratic or Republican party. Vice President Charles Dawes was considered as a potential candidate but was quickly rejected both because of his disastrous stay as VP and because president Coolidge told the party it would be a personal affront to put him up.

As noted before Huckabee was on Meet the Press this morning. On the topic of Mitt Romney Huckabee says he believes the former Mass governor is running a “desperate and frankly dishonest campaign”.

What I find interesting is that Huckabee once again has come to the defense of John McCain saying the Senator is an “honest man” and “John McCain is a hero in this country and a hero to me”. Do I hear the potential for a McCain/Huckabee matchup or maybe even a Huckabee/McCain match-up for the Vice Presidency? The two both have what the other needs, McCain has the experience and national security cred, Huckabee has the evangelical and overall religious cred.