My personal guess is that Mr. Obama made his quota of unassisted three-pointers while with the troops overseas last week ...

Mr. Obama: You'll clearly need Hillary on your ticket to have even a sliver of a chance to beat the odds of running against The Keys to the White House--now that the economy is continuing to grow (albeit slowly!) this quarter, gas prices beginning to drop and the "Republican surge" in Iraq turning out to be a surprising winner.

Not to mention that you're running against a bona fide war hero--one of Mediawingnuts' favorites no less. As it stands now, no fewer than ten of the "Keys" are "True" and only seven were needed for Mr. McCain to win. They are Keys numbered 2, 4 (Nader is at 6% this week), 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (the "surge" worked), 12 (the Hanoi Hilton) and 13,

Admittedly, you will have to feel comfortable with your choice of a running mate both before and after the voting in November--whether you win or lose--and I for one believe that you most assuredly will feel more comfortable with Hillary's name next to yours on the posters than with nearly any other possibility of which I am aware.

Al Gore hasn't even hinted that he was interested and Ronald Reagan and Franklyn Delano Roosevelt are ineligible.

Mr. Obama, you will have to swallow your pride--difficult for someone who sees himself as our "Dark Knight"--and just think about what the past year has largely been all about--both for yourself and for the Democrats who endured the longest primary season in their memories.

One poll showed as much as a 5% increase in your numbers--to between 53% and 55%--when you had her on the ticket versus without her on your ticket. Those eighteen million cracks in the glass ceiling had the initials "HRC" all over them.

Don't let your pride stand in the way of at least making this November another close race, Mr. O. (Of course, you'll probably lose anyway!)

And as regards Bill Clinton taking you off of your message of change: Take the time to make a couple of phone calls and decide for yourself if Hillary and Bill are really the stick-in-the-muds that your campaign folks seem to think.

My brother in Connecticut still thinks it's all a matter of the Keys to the White House and an election or two in the past that showed that each of the recent Presidential elections was a referendum on the former (or current at the time) administration.

But even on that score ... the keys are turning, Mr. O.--away from your being elected, not toward your being elected.

Give yourself at least a chance in November! Don't throw away your only chance--and for the rest of us, the fun of a close election.

As I see it, without HRC on the ticket, you will lose by upwards of 100 electoral votes. And while you're thinking, be sure to watch Dara Torres swimming during the Summer Olympics and determine for yourself if Hillary's "old age" will be a problem.