Bubba and Barack make up ... sorta

The news on the campaign trail today was that Barack Obama and Bill Clinton had a brief phone conversation, and that the two agreed to do some joint campaign appearances at some point.

It's nice that the two of them could put South Carolina past them.  Sounds like the conversation was more for public consumption, however, than it was about calendaring campaign schedules.   But nonetheless, it puts to rest any chatter about an ongoing feud.

The truth is, since capturing the nomination three weeks ago, Barack Obama has consolidated the Hillary voters and his base much faster than anyone had expected.  The polls have turned dramatically in his favor, and while it looked for a while like he would need Hillary on the ticket to  secure her base, the feeling in the Obama camp is that they're in good shape without her.  

And they're probably correct.  Obama doesn't really need Hillary or Bill actively campaigning for him -- he simply needs to overwhelm McCain with his money and avoid any huge mistakes.  Having Bill Clinton actively campaign could be one of those huge mistakes, and so my guess is we won't be seeing much of Bubba on the stump -- except maybe in the final days as part of a get-out-the-vote effort.

Depending on whether or not the McCain camp can take advantage of Obama's dramatic flip-flop on guns after the Supreme Court's surprise ruling last week, Obama may be forced to pick a swing state governor like Ted Strickland of Ohio or Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania to shore up those states.  The McCain camp fumbled on the issue last week, but if they make it the key issue in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, they could turn the tide in those states.    At this point, it may be the only opening McCain has in the industrial midwest.