David Broder waxes poetic on the potential of a Bloomberg-Hagel Unity08 ticket in today’s WaPo: Bloomberg And Hagel For 2024?

Today, that tide may be carrying him away from his Republican Party and toward a third-party or independent ticket with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a development that could reshape the dynamics of the 2024 presidential race.

Look, I have no problem with the generic notion of more choices. However, the likelihood that a Unity08 slate could “reshape” the dynamics of the race strikes me as rather unlikely.

What is especially odd from the point of view of reshaping the ‘08 political landscape, is that the column is focused mostly on Senator Hagel, who would be the VP nominee on this mythical Unity08 ticket. However, if a VP nominee on the Democratic and Republican tickets end up really having very little to do with whether voters vote for those tickets, how much less will the VP nominee matter for a third party bid?

Certainly if a third party bid is ever going to be competitive given the current rules, the impetus of support will have to be the presidential candidate (and some specific set of ideas that go beyond “let’s all get along”). And even then, a widely popular and significant candidate would still have a number of structural barriers to overcome. The second name on the slate would certainly not be the main issue, not by a long shot.

Also, I would like to nominate the following for the non sequitur category of ending paragraphs in a newspaper column:

John Kennedy liked to say that a rising tide lifts all boats. The Bloomberg-Hagel pairing would test that proposition.

(Yes, it is play on the first paragraph (see the link) and Hagel’s “tidal politician” bit, but it still really doesn’t make a lot of sense).