The way that the Democratic primary campaign ended was a solid letdown. As any of my regular readers know, I’ve said that this was over a long time ago and time has shown that I was roughly correct. The last primaries have been very much like watching a football game in which one team was up by 5 touchdowns at the half; leads like that are rarely blown and a Prevent Defense is really pretty boring to watch.

Now that we all know that game is really over, things may become more interesting. The Superbowl is set and we’re off on a new series of hype. I think I can get into it.

The real question that remains is whether or not Obama picks Clinton as veep. I don’t think that will happen, and despite having called for that in the past I don’t think it’s a good idea. I think there’s a role for Clinton, but I see it in a broader context. I see her as a part of a team.

The biggest rap against Obama is that he’s not very experienced. This has the advantage of being completely true, meaning it will stick in the minds of voters. But the Executive Branch of our government is much more than one person, one quarterback who leads the effort. It takes an entire team of people, including key cabinet positions like Secretary of State and Treasury. Why not announce not just your veep, but the whole team?

There are many reasons to do this. For one thing, it blunts the experience question perfectly. Don’t like Obama’s foreign policy cred? How about Secretary of State in Waiting Bill Richardson’s mojo? By introducing Richardson as such (and I’m sure he wants the job) you’re giving people a good reason to listen to him as he makes the rounds of groups that have an interest in our foreign policy. You’re making the surrogates more effective by making them part of the team.

The other reason is one of transparency. I want to know, more than anything, the people that will fill these jobs. The economic success of the Clinton years had more to do with Robert Rubin than anything that Bill did directly. I can’t imagine that I won’t vote for Obama, but I know that other people are a bit hesitant. Letting them know not just who the chief executive is but who the whole team will bring a new era of openness that brings real meat to the demand for Change.

The last reason is that while I don’t think that Sen. Clinton is necessarily a good veep choice, I do think that there is a role for her somewhere. She wants to be an executive badly, and I don’t blame her for that. To be Vice President is to have no job at all, meaning that she’ll have plenty of time to go around a look for something to do. That’s a recipe for trouble. Let’s channel her energy into something we know she can kick serious butt on.

What I’m proposing has never been done before. I can’t say why, since it’s very standard in any nation with a parliamentary government. There is the perception of corruption, which is to say that a series of deals have been cut, which candidates have always wanted to avoid. Well, at the beginning of football season the process of forming a team is always marked by holdouts and massive contracts, and the winners always get past that and play. This game is almost certainly no different.

So that’s my advice to make the next phase of this show interesting: name the whole team. Let us know who’s going on to the Big Game and afterwards. Obama may be good, but someone has to make it happen. That takes a whole team. Sharing the spotlight with that whole team will show that it’s not just a show, it’s serious – in every way possible. And everyone knows that teamwork is what it takes to win championships.