The Huffington Post had a little piece about Clinton’s current tactics; trying to demonstrate that Obama still needs her. I have no doubt that Clinton can wreck magnificent havoc on the Democrat’s chances in November, the issue I think should be what Team Obama should do about it.

There’s been lot’s of talk about a unity ticket between Obama and Clinton as a panacea for the Democrat’s travails. After all, Hillary is a formidable campaigner and has a lock on some of the demographics that Obama has found so elusive. Yet there are serious doubts as well as to what effect Clinton will have on the Obama brand and about just how much benefit she’d bring to the ticket in the first place. Maybe Clinton’s hardball is supposed to increase her value to the ticket to make her seem important enough for democratic unity to beat down her rivals. Call it positioning herself as the indispensable ticket balancer.

I personally dislike Clinton at all levels, the more so because of the low-down and dirty nature of the campaign she’s run. If she really is doing all this to try and hold Mr. Obama’s campaign hostage to force her demands on him, then as a principle my answer is “no negotiation”. But that kind of emotive, knee-jerk reaction isn’t what we really need right now when the prize at stake is victory in November.

So the question comes down to a matter of principle or victory. Common sense says compromise is the best solution: offer Clinton something juicy - perhaps not VP, but guarantee her a prestigious position somewhere. But I honestly doubt Mrs. Clinton will settle for anything less than the no.2 spot; just look how hard she fought for the no.1. Whatever the result, the effect would be to bring Clinton on board and thus guarantee victory in November. Give her most of what she wants to stabilize the party.

But what if the cost of compromise ends up being higher than the cost of standing up to her? Giving in to Clinton could cost Obama with his own base, particularly if the Clinton price is to pack his cabinet with her own cronies. The basic argument still applies - the Obama brand might be irreparably damaged by excessive association with the Clintons, particularly if he’s seen as giving in to her  demands; what kind of message would that send to voters already concerned with Obama’s stated willingness to talk to sawdust Caesars like Hugo Chavez and President Ahmadjinedad?

And is the whole “party unity” overblown anyway? Obama is already starting to outpoll John McCain in some surveys. He has a brilliant team, gargantuan grassroots movement, a superb online operation, oodles of cash and the wind in his sails on just about every important issue. Democratic turnout is already trouncing Republican turnout by nearly 2 to 1 and the Republicans look set to have their own rebellion within the ranks in the form of Ron Paul.

Really, the only card Hillary has in her deck right now is the electoral college. She beat out Obama in the big states and those will matter in November. The question then would be if Clinton can drive enough Democrats away from the polls to guarantee victory for John McCain. The fear is that she will. In the end, Clinton might become Barack Obama’s “swiftboat”, more than anything else the Republicans can throw at him.

And my answer to THAT would be to do what Kerry should have done with the swiftboaters and bury her before she can do more damage. Marginalize her quickly by picking a VP immediately after he hits the magic number to put the nomination out of Clinton’s reach and turn his guns on McCain full fury. The MSM will throw her a few bones in the immediate aftermath but will gradually lose interest so long as Obama can keep the narrative as one between him and McCain. Once the 527s whip out the knives, Clinton and her die-hards will be lost in the background noise. Then her backers will be faced with a stark choice - Obama or four more years.

The whole Obama campaign has been one helluva roll of the dice. Time to make one more. Bury Clinton, throw out her supporters and start the third Democrat dynasty - The Obama.