Barack Obama: The Man of Hillary Clinton's Dreams?

Even with Bill Clinton fading into the background a bit these days, I don't think anyone has forgotten that the former president is still married to the secretary of state. And the current first couple still gives off a giddy 10th date kind of a vibe. So, why do columnists keep trying to set up Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton?

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times pens the latest of the Hillary-Barack marriage analogies, saying: "Barack Obama is the pretty thing who is taken with Hillary's serious, smartest-girl-at-Wellesley aura. In a funny way, he's the man of her dreams."This swoon-worthy pronouncement comes a month after the Daily Beast's Tina Brown referred to Clinton as Obama's burqa-clad wife. I don't recall any marriage references involving Bill Clinton and his secretary of state, the similarly tough-minded Madeleine Albright. All the Hillary-Barack analogies may be a measure of how unexpectedly smooth the surface of their working relationship appears.

When the Obama Cabinet was being put together, one of the concerns was that with so many big names -- and big egos -- in the mix, there could be constant clashes. Instead, everyone seems to be working and playing well with others. If there are any disputes between Obama and his Cabinet, they're certainly not playing out before the cameras.

The relationship between the president and his secretary of state actually seems to be quite good -- especially considering how quickly the gloves came off in the bare-knuckles boxing match that was the 2008 Democratic campaign. But even if Clinton's come into her own in this latest role, her hopes and ambitions were all centered on the presidency. I suspect that the real man of Hillary's dreams would be her vice president.