Ex-Clintonite Starts Unity Ticket Petition

Mark Ambinder of The Atlantic reports that a former Hillary Clinton insider has started an online petition drive for a "Unity Ticket":

Hillary/Obama '08 becomes official today. In a way.

A Clinton insider who served as ex campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle's executive assistant for several years has set up a new website, http://www.voteboth.com/ and plans to register with the Federal Election Commission today.

VoteBoth urges Democrats to support a joint Clinton-Obama ticket.

Its creator, Adam Parkhomenko, resigned from the campaign three weeks ago.

Hey, that idea sounds familiar. Of course, "Vote Both" seems to have a definite pecking order in mind, doubtless arrived at fairly, by a coin toss or dartboard.

After the jump, some quick thoughts on this, including my inquiries to both campaigns for reaction to this petition.

Update: 3:11 pm The Clinton campaign doesn't have a comment on this.

The first thing I thought of was the "Red vs. Blue" routine about how some people sound like they are saying "Bowlth" instead of "both". Now, I think of that every time someone uses the word, and so will you. You're saying, "bowlth" under your breath right now.

The second thought was that this idea is really half-baked, and seems to be more of a PR stunt than anything else. U.S. law doesn't provide for a true "Co-Presidency", so a "Unity Ticket" is really just the much-bandied "Dream Ticket."

So, what's the point? Some might wonder if this is a sign of surrender, or an imminent drop-out by Senator Clinton, given Parkhomenko's closeness with the campaign.

I would disagree. My guess is that this is an "unofficial" strategy move to advance a fallback position for the convention should Hillary come close, but fail, to eclipse any of Obama's key leads.

I contacted both (bowlth?) campaigns for comment. The Obama campaign declined to comment at this time, and I am awaiting a final response from the Clinton camp . Check back later for more.