The Dream Ticket, Despite Odds

Conventional wisdom has reservations about a Hillary Clinton-Barack Obama ticket, Peter Ross Range writes in Der Spiegel, but the pairing might just be perfect enough to overcome them. The two Democratic contenders are not geographical or ideological complements, they’ve “hit bottom in personal terms” and they’d be two “minorities” on a single bill—but their celebrity and combined strengths could break the mold.

Bill Clinton already debunked the “choosing one's opposites” rule, winning twice with a fellow Southerner. And Hillary's gender is a net plus, Range argues, generating more female enthusiasm than male scorn. What’s more, the two represent the “practical and utopian side of the great American experiment”—and they’re adult enough to get over their recent bad blood.