Don't Be Henpecked, Obama

"What does Hillary want?" Hillary Clinton asked rhetorically last night at her rally in New York. Still a good question, writes Maureen Dowd, since apparently she's not going away anytime soon. Having given her surrogates the green light to push for an Obama-Clinton ticket, the New York Times columnist asks why Hillary is promoting herself for the vice-presidency—"a job she's already had and doesn't want again."

Two theories have traction among Clinton watchers: either she's putting on a show to position herself for 2012 in case of an Obama loss, or she's really banking on an RFK-style tragedy to bring her to the Oval Office. Either way, writes Dowd, Obama must resist or end up like Walter Mondale: a battle-scarred candidate "henpecked" into choosing a female running mate, who went down to a crushing defeat. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)