A Jewish Mother for Obama?

If he decides against Hillary Clinton as a running mate, the Democratic nominee might consider Dianne Feinstein, who played Jewish mother last night by getting them together at her Washington home for a "play nice, children" moment.

“They talked for about an hour,” California's senior Senator told reporters. “Just them. No staff. There were no press, no staff. They had one person from each campaign that was in my study separately and I guess the security people outside. They got along very well.”

As a running mate, Feinstein has a good deal to offer beyond her appeal to Jewish voters--for disappointed women, her staunch support of Clinton during the campaign; for doubters about Obama's youth, more than a decade of executive experience as Mayor of San Francisco; for ideologues, her relative centrism over 16 years in the Senate.

Like John McCain, she has a very rich spouse, whose business ties may raise some questions but not as many as those of the Clintons would.

Taking the game of fantasy politics a step further, if Obama-Feinstein turned out to be a winning ticket, her ascension could open the way for Californians to achieve a demographic twofer by electing Condi Rice to fill her seat.

This weird year, anything is possible.