Premature and Irresponsible Political Speculation

Let's say, for the sake of argument, that money wins out in the primaries and Hillary and Mitt turn out to be their parties' nominees. What are the odds, do you think, that the likely runner-ups at this point--Obama and McCain--would decide to run together on an Independent ticket? How would you feel about such a scenario? And do you think they'd have a better chance to win the Executive Office outside rather than inside their parties?

Before you answer, check out this piece from the UK on Obama's appeal to moderate conservatives and this one from LA on his bipartisanship emphasis being in the American grain. And consider that while Obama can afford to wait 8 years for another presidential run, McCain can't, so if bridges between them and their party leaders get seriously burned in the coming months, Obama is in a position to demand some serious concessions from McCain (including, perhaps, the top of the ticket) in exchange for joining forces with him.

Sorry, all the sports-style coverage of the primaries has got me thinking like an NFL fan whose team is out of the playoffs (go Bills!) and is looking for ways to make them interesting. To borrow from Oaktown Girl's brilliant and prophetic playoffs post, I'm thinking of Hillary as the Patriots, Edwards as the Chargers, Obama as the Giants, Romney as the Cowboys, and McCain as the Packers.

Yeah, yeah, I know. At least I lived up to the post's title, eh?

[Update 2/8/08: Ah, well I accidentally invoked the Mostly Harmless jinx on Romney. Now if it'll only kick in on my real target. McCain vs. Obama is much more interesting than McCain with Obama.]