James Carville has a good idea (blogged about yesterday on Gristmill.com), and I-I-I know (that's me-me-me) because I had the same idea. In March. In writing.

The idea is for Obama to ask Gore to be his vice president and serve as the energy czar. My idea was to make him "co-president," an idea that was floated, and then sank, during a brief dalliance in 1976 when Ford tried to get Reagan to accept the vice presidency.

Why would Gore ever agree to run, or serve, as vice president, when he already held the job for 8 years, and then got the most votes for president? That's got to be so over for him by now, no? Probably.

But with the right sort of commitment from Obama, where else would Gore have the kind of influence in the fight over global warming? The problem is so pressing that it could easily take all a president's time, if there weren't so many other pressing problems presenting the planet.

This way, it could take all a co-president's time, and get the attention it requires, while not letting other trifles such as nuclear proliferation and a tanking economy and radicals who hate us stand in the way. Yes, those issues are interrelated with climate change, but that just means the two co-presidents would have to talk once in a while. Probably a good idea anyway.

I concede it is not a likely outcome. Kathleen Sebelius and Jim Webb are both good candidates, to me, and certainly there are others. But no one would do more for climate change and energy independence, or the Democratic ticket, than Al Gore.