Unity Ticket or Tooth Fairy?

Maureen Dowd yesterday explained why some of Obama's financial backers do not want a unity ticket:

She just urged her supporters to keep the dream alive, and talked privately about what she would settle for. She has told some Democrats recently that she wanted Obama to agree to allow a roll call vote, like days of yore, so that the delegates of states she won would cast the first ballot for her at the convention. She said she wanted that for her daughter.

Obama supporters are worried that it's a trick and she'll somehow snatch away the nomination. Just as Hillary supporters have hardened toward him, many of Obama's donors and fans have hardened against the Clintons, saying it would be disillusioning to see them on a ticket that's supposed to be about fresh politics.

"It would be," said one influential Democrat, "like finding out there's no tooth fairy."

This sentiment is echoed in a letter to the editor of today's New York Times:

To the Editor:

Re "Next on Agenda Is Clinton's Role" (news analysis, front page, June 4):

The idea of Hillary Rodham Clinton as Barack Obama's running mate is fundamentally flawed. While it might seem politically expedient, it would deny Americans of all political persuasions the very choice that Mr. Obama offers: a break with the partisan intrigues of the past.

As a Democrat and former Clinton supporter as disenchanted by her campaign as I am inspired by his, I hope that Democratic Party power brokers will find the courage to let this emerging leader strike his own course.

Mark Hugh Miller

Los Angeles, June 4, 2008

Is it that anybody but Clinton would allow this ticket to stay fresh? Or is it that as soon as Obama has to perform the quotidian duties of the job that the fantasy of Obama will come crashing down to earth?