Peanut gallery.

Then there was that little thing of the helicopters crashing in the sand, and instead of going back and taking care of business he hid out in the White House for a couple of years.

I don't believe it. I just think the Clintons get more press.

Okay, thanks. I'll go check it out. Could you please ping me if you ever happen to come across anymore data points on the topic you think are useful, unique, and/or informative?

Many thanks.

Sure enough... Not that I'd ever suggest Wikipedia as the end-all-be-all of correct information:

Then, in a move which surprised many, Johnson was asked by Kennedy to be his running mate. To this day there is much debate regarding the details of Johnson's nomination - why it was offered and why he agreed to take it. Some historians speculate that Kennedy actually wanted someone else (such as Senators Stuart Symington or Henry M. Jackson) to be his running mate, and that he offered the nomination to Johnson first only as a courtesy to the powerful Senate Majority Leader. According to this theory, Kennedy was then surprised when Johnson accepted second place on the Democratic ticket.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1960_election

One very interesting off-topic gem from the same page:

Kennedy was initially dogged by suggestions from some Democratic Party elders (such as former President Harry Truman) that he was too youthful and inexperienced to be president; these critics suggested that he agree to be the running mate for a "more experienced" Democrat. Realizing that this was a strategy touted by his opponents to keep the public from taking him seriously, Kennedy stated frankly ‘I’m not running for vice president, I’m running for president.’

Truly there exists nothing new under the sun I suppose, no?

He's ahead in Pennsylvania and he's even in Ohio without her. Hillary would definitely help in Arkansas and might help in West Virginia and Florida.

Sure, Steve, if you count "just barely" as "ahead."

Pennsylvania and Ohio are going to be true battlegrounds. And we can totally pitch West Virginia, Arkansas, and Florida out the window right now if Clinton is not on the ticket.

So where does that leave us? Here's an assessment about whether Obama should woo Latinos or Reagan Democrats. (Answer: He really needs both.)

But my mantra is, and remains, any Democratic plan for victory (by any candidate) that depends on Florida is doomed from the outset.

Please. Your mantra should be Democrats are always doomed from the outset. How many Democrats have been elected since 1970? Carter was only elected as a reaction to Nixon. After 4 years of Carter, the country was already sick of Democrats.

From the article I linked to, some interesting tidbits about Florida's Latino population (with many rose-colored hypotheticals):

But consider another scenario: Obama could dispatch running mate Richardson to Florida during the campaign. Though Richardson is from the West, perhaps he might be able to sway Florida’s Latino voters, which now number more than one million, and bring them into the Democratic column. The idea of hinging one’s electoral strategy upon Florida is surely disquieting to the Democrats, but winning the state back is not as crazy as it sounds. At present, the state is leaning in McCain’s direction but still could tilt back Democratic. By November the number of Latino Democrats in the state will probably exceed the number of Latino Republicans for the first time. According to exit polls, the Democrats won the Latino vote in the 2006 mid-term election. It was the first time in 30 years.

Traditionally, the Republicans have locked up the Latino vote by appealing to conservative Cubans. But in recent years Florida’s Latino population has gone through dramatic changes. In 1988, Cuban-Americans made up 90 percent of the Latino vote. Now, that number has fallen to 45 percent. The influx of other Latino groups such as Venezuelans, Colombians and Puerto Ricans, and the deaths of older Cuban-American exiles, account for the changes. In the crucial “I-4 corridor” in Orlando and Central Florida, Latinos are growing in population. Many Puerto Ricans have settled in the Orlando area, taking jobs in the state's stable tourism industry. Colombians, Nicaraguans and other Latinos have also moved to the area and typically lean Democrat.

The GOP may not even be able to hold on to its traditional base within the Cuban-American community. In Florida, the Republicans are running scared because a younger generation of Cuban-Americans is shedding its traditional loyalty to the GOP. Younger Cuban-Americans are more concerned about the economy, healthcare and the Iraq War than U.S. policy towards Cuba. In addition, Fidel Castro is gone from the scene and as a result the Republicans don’t have their traditional whipping boy anymore. With Richardson on his team, Obama just might be able to turn Florida blue. If Obama carries the American West, the West Coast, some Midwestern states and the Northeast, and adds Florida to the fold, he beats McCain with 288 electoral votes to 250.

No problemo, right? Too bad Obama didn't win over the Puerto Ricans.

He has been polling well in Penn, but Ohio not so much.

I really hope that I am wrong, but I have always thought that Obama is going to be very vulnerable to the typical Republican tactics. And you can pretend that Hillary ran the most repugnant campaign ever, and while to be honest I didn't like some of her tactics towards the end, I at least did not think there was anything really beyond the pale. I think that the examples used to suggest that Hillary supported the "Obama as unamerican" theme were pretty much ginned up ("as far as I know", "two candidates that love their country"). Anyways, my point is that I think that McCain is going to push that angle very hard, and Obama is going to lose Ohio and Pennsylvania. Don't know if Hillary would help him or not.