'Dream Ticket' Odds Fading

An Obama-Clinton ticket is looking less and less likely, based on the public and private comments of both senators, the New York Times reports. Obama hasn’t asked Hillary Clinton for background check documents, and his recent statement that he’s looking for a Washington outsider suggests he won’t. Clinton has privately told associates that she doesn’t expect the nod and considers any statements to the contrary a courtesy only.

Clinton loyalists still argue her case—“If he picks Hillary, he gets her 18 million supporters and we would win in a cakewalk,” says Terry McAuliffe—but Obama thinks merging with the Clintons would undermine his change-oriented message while upsetting the balance of his tightly run campaign. Obama’s aides are confident that primary season passions have cooled and that most of Hillary’s supporters will back him. (More vice presidential sweepstakes stories.)