The Washington Post's premier gossipeuse Bob Woodward said yesterday that a deal for Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden to "swap" positions in 2012 is "on the table." Can someone please present evidence for this, or just stop saying it?

The White House, Clinton's staff, and pretty much every other official government person who's been asked about this rumor has flatly and unequivocally denied that there is even a shred of a whisper of a half-molecule of truth to this. But they could always be lying! Couldn't they?

It would be much easier to consider this rumor for more than a half-second if whoever is spreading it — and there seems to be someone! — stopped spreading it to the most naive Washington elites, like Bob Woodward and Sally Quinn, who simply repeat it and say, "trust me, it's serious."

Because politically, it doesn't make sense. Both Clinton and Biden have been the least of Barack Obama's worries. And picking a hot-shot vice president to win a presidential election never, ever, ever works! Because you're still voting for the top of the ticket after the excitement dies down, and then you're merely leaving yourself with an internal power struggle that would be the endless source of speculation and misery. And how would Joe Biden look, after a demotion? Would people ever stop asking him about his feelings over the demotion? "How much do you hate Hillary Clinton over the demotion?" and so on. It would never end — and it would have some truth to it.

Besides, if Hillary Clinton wanted to run for president in 2016, she wouldn't need to be vice president beforehand. She's qualified. She could take a much-deserved year or two of vacation instead. A vacation from politics! Wouldn't that be nice?