Don't count Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts among Democrats hankering for the so-called dream ticket of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
"I don't think it's possible," Kennedy says in an interview on Bloomberg Television's "Political Capital With Al Hunt," airing this weekend.
Kennedy, a key early supporter of Obama, also seemed to aim some rather biting words Clinton's way. He didn't name names, but he said Obama should pick someone who "is in tune with his appeal for the nobler aspirations of the American people."
"If we had real leadership - as we do with Barack Obama - in the number two spot as well, it'd be enormously helpful," he added.
Kennedy's office disputed that he was referring to Clinton, saying that he answered a question about the possibility of an Obama-Clinton ticket, then responded to questions that did not pertain to Clinton.
"Senator Kennedy thinks Senator Clinton is more than qualified to be vice president, but doesn't think it's likely given the tenor of the campaign in recent weeks," spokesman Anthony Coley said in a statement.
While some Democrats have looked at the demographic divide among Clinton and Obama voters and say the best way to unite the party is for both to be on the ticket, Kennedy has been among those who have been critical of Clinton's attacks on Obama.
FOON RHEE
GOP committee website urges questions on Obama
It's clear who is the candidate Republicans believe they'll be facing this fall for president. The Republican National Committee yesterday launched a website inviting voters to raise questions about Barack Obama's positions and qualifications.
The site, similar to one that the Democratic National Committee has had for weeks about presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, features a video with foreboding music that tries to raise troubling questions.
Among them: Obama's "present" votes as an Illinois state senator on hot-button issues such as gun control, his spending proposals and how he plans to pay for them, and his comments at a San Francisco fund-raiser about "bitter" small-town voters who "cling to guns or religion."
"Can we ask," the announcer begins each question, and each is followed by the ubiquitous chant from Obama rallies: "Yes we can."
For the final question, the announcer says, "On experience, can we ask ourselves if three years in the US Senate prepares Barack Obama to be our next commander in chief?" The video then shows Obama saying, "Yes we can."
FOON RHEE
Edwards declines to name favorite in Democratic race
John Edwards continued to play coy yesterday, shying again from endorsing in the Democratic race.
In interviews on NBC and MSNBC, he did allow the obvious - that Barack Obama is likely to be the nominee. "It's very difficult to make the math work," Edwards said of Clinton's assertion that she can still win. But some political junkies are theorizing that at one point in the interviews, Edwards slipped up and acknowledged backing Obama.
Edwards said it was "very likely" that he would eventually endorse the candidate he voted for in Tuesday's North Carolina primary. He then seemed to say, "I just voted - I just voted for him on Tuesday."
But then when he was asked, "So it was a him or a her that you voted for?" Edwards said, "No, no" and laughed.
Edwards, the former North Carolina senator, has been courted by both sides since he dropped out of the race in late January. Most analysts believe he favors Obama, but one reason he might be staying publicly neutral is that his wife, Elizabeth Edwards, has tilted toward Clinton, publicly praising Clinton's healthcare plan over Obama's.
FOON RHEE
Video features photos, words of Chelsea Clinton
With Mother's Day tomorrow and with a campaign on the ropes, Hillary Clinton yesterday released a video featuring her daughter Chelsea, whose privacy the Clintons have tried to protect ever since their White House days.
The video makes public for the first time family snapshots of Chelsea growing up and features some very personal feelings from the former first daughter, who has taken on a more public role in recent weeks stumping for her mother but who has been guarded about talking about her family.
"I'd like to tell you about my mom," Chelsea Clinton says in the ad. "Yes, she's running for president, but she's always done a lot of running. She'd run straight home from work to ensure we had dinner together every night and to help me with my homework. She'd run to school if I were sick and needed to be home with my mom taking care of me. She'd run from one softball game to one soccer game to every piano recital and every ballet recital. She's always been, and continues to be, my biggest fan.
Chelsea Clinton concludes: "And remember, your little girls can be anything they want to be in America when they grow up. Even if it's to be the second woman president."
FOON RHEE
Editor apologizes for horse, derby analogy
Yes, Hillary Clinton was publicly pulling for Eight Belles, the filly who finished second in the Kentucky Derby, but then broke both front ankles and was euthanized on the track, in front of a national television audience.
And yes, Clinton is very likely to finish runner-up to Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination.
But an editorial in Obama's hometown paper, the Chicago Tribune, that compared Clinton to the racehorse and the Democratic nomination race to the derby was too much for the Tribune's public editor, who represents readers.
Timothy J. McNulty wrote yesterday that several readers complained and that, "Notwithstanding the playful, even clever, writing of the editorial, it was wrong." McNulty said he was made queasy by the imagery of the editorial's closing sentence: "There's no reason to wait until August to put Clinton, and the rest of us, out of our misery."
The Tribune's editorial page editor told McNulty, "We want to write editorials that are provocative. This one went right to the edge. I understand that some readers thought the analogy was insulting to Clinton. That wasn't the intent."
FOON RHEE
