Hillary’s weighing the merits of Obama as a vice-presidential running mate is ridiculous, which makes it the perfect big-media story. The contest is nowhere close to over. Everything is hanging in the balance. Why should anyone care who Hillary is considering for VP? No one, of course, except that’s not the point. Hillary’s weighing the big question and repeating news of her weighing it and sending Bill out to do the same is just another leaden tactic through which she hopes to win back the long-gone air of inevitability. “Sure, I’ll consider putting Obama on my ticket! Wouldn’t that be something!”

A ridiculous news story. And yet now our hand is forced. As all serious journalists will tell you, we have to report on the story even if we think it’s ridiculous because the media reporting it is a big story that demands covering!

Since we seem to have definitively entered the silly season in politics, the question we must now consider is how best to arrange such a ticket: Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama?

Obama has come out strongly to say the whole discussion is nonsense and that he would not consider her as VP. But in the silly season, nonsense rules. He should be strongly stating his view that Hillary would make an excellent vice president. Maybe start with a pithy phrase: “Hillary is just likable enough to be a great vice president!” or “We can avoid Deadlock on Day One by voting Hillary for vice president!”

He should also be stressing that her “thirty-five years of experience” in politics has overwhelmingly been as a form of adviser, that her vaunted experience in the White House as first lady is in fact the best possible preparation not for the presidency but for the vice presidency. Vice presidents are like spouses in that they are expected to stridently advocate for their cause and then to accept being politely ignored as a result.

Obama could add that, because the vice presidency is an advisory position, it’s a much better place to install the two-for-one Clintons. We don’t want them as unwieldy co-leaders but as an advice-giving team— a co-vice presidency that answers to one decision-making president, a man with vision and a proven ability to make the right choices when it matters most (Iraq invasion!). The catch phrase: “Vote Billary for vice president. More advisers. Less presidents!”

Finally, Obama could play up the way Hillary’s unique strengths will be drawn on and rewarded best as vice president. For example, no one expects the vice president to be a strong orator. Veeps make appearances not speeches. As veep, Hillary will be able to breathe again. No one will be looking for any kind of transcendent articulations of vision from her. She will be done at last with making excuses about the tone deafness of her muse. No more having to deal with mere words! Even more important, perhaps, is that it is a good thing for the vice president to be seen as an intransigent wonk. The impression that Hillary’s always got facts and figures in her folder and stubbornness in her heart will be an unmitigated plus, because no one on Capitol Hill will want to deal with her and will flee instead to the president, who will seem the picture of moderation and reasonableness by comparison.

The bumper sticker:
“Obama-Clinton: A great leader and a pretty good adviser, too!”