As recently as, oh, yesterday, the general view was that if any candidate had to get a little crazy with his VP pick, it's John McCain. Running as the old, white guy against a dynamo like Obama, especially in a year the electorate seems sick of the status quo, is reason enough to shake the ticket up a bit.

Well, that was before the latest round of national and state polling, which show McCain surging ahead. So instead of McCain shaking things up, maybe it's Obama who needs to do the shaking. And who do you think would shake things the most?

The Nation's John Nichols revisits an old idea:

Well, the latest polls seem to suggest that Obama finds himself in a circumstance that lends itself to the Clinton consideration.

Despite the fact that the miserable state of the U.S. economy shaped by eight years of oilman budgeting should be handing the election to Obama, he's either tied or behind in a number of key state and national surveys. The new Reuters/Zogby poll has Republican John McCain leading Obama 46-41. Gallup and LA Times surveys have it much closer, with Obama slightly up. But these are not encouraging number for the Democrats.

Russian tanks in Georgia, regime change in Pakistan and the general uncertainty about whether to worry more about a new Cold War or the mismanagement of the old war on terror seems to have caused a good many Americans to edge toward McCain. That may not be reasonable, or smart or fair. But, to employ the phrase of the season, "It is what it is."

Barack Obama might just need Hillary Clinton.

We all know the knocks against the "Dream Ticket," as it was once called. But of all Obama's options out there none would generate the, what's the word, pandemonium that Clinton would. I think that an Obama-Clinton ticket would surge in the polls, at least initially, before leveling off after the convention chaos is over. And maybe that's just what Obama needs to rejuvenate his campaign.