'It's Going To Be an Obama-Spitzer Ticket Someday'

Well now, wouldn't this have been fun.

An entertaining -- but slightly improbable -- bit in Peter Elkind's "Rough Justice" purports to have Democratic strategist and Barack Obama best friend David Axelrod talking up the idea of an "Obama-Spitzer ticket" at one point.

This was supposedly in 2006, and Spitzer -- presumably the source for the information - had a private coffee with Obama as he made a stop in New York as he was weighing a challenge to Hillary Rodham Clinton for the presidency.

According to Elkind, "David Axelrod, the political consultant who had advised both men, once told the AG: 'It's going to be an Obama-Spitzer ticket someday.' "

Unless Axelrod said it as a joke at one point, it's tough to imagine he was truly suggesting the hard-charging Spitzer as a runningmate for Obama, a candidate about whom he felt different than any other he's ever worked with.

Among many problems with the anecdote, Spitzer embodies some of the same qualities that once prompted someone to say about Rudy Giuliani something along the lines of: "Anybody who names Rudy Giuliani vice-anything ought to get a food taster."

Safe to say Spitzer fell off the radar once he was caught with his pants down in March 2008. Besides, I doubt someone as humble as Obama could handle having an egomaniac like Spitzer on the same ticket.