Could Clinton, Obama become a team?

It's the latest big bang theory of Democratic presidential politics.

Democrats who can't decide between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton saw the possibility dangled in front of them Wednesday that they could end up with both.

"That may be where this is headed," Clinton said of their knotted nomination race, when she was asked about it. She made clear she was thinking Clinton-Obama if anything.

Obama did not rule out teaming up with her even while waving off such speculation smack in the middle of their full-blown struggle to have people choose one over the other. "I think it is very premature to start talking about a joint ticket," he said.

The notion of a Democratic dream team has come up before, getting little traction.

It may get more if the contest continues to drag on with neither candidate capable of clinching the nomination short of an ugly fight up to and perhaps including the late August convention.

If there's any chemistry between them, it might take a microchemist to find it.

When they are in the same room, as in debates, they give off the vibe of not wanting to be in the same room, except for their best-behavior moments on TV.

She is known to resent what she saw as his out-of-turn bid for the nomination. He doesn't like her portrayal of him as a lightweight.

Then there are the spouses. Michelle Obama recently said this of Bill Clinton in The New Yorker magazine: "I want to rip his eyes out!" She added: "Kidding."

Still, imagine a state dinner in an Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama White House.

Republican strategist Rich Galen says it's hard to see two Clintons and one Obama talking policy in the Oval Office. He pictures Bill Clinton telling the others what he would do, and one of them not liking that.

Plus, he said, "If Hillary picked Obama, she would be overshadowed by him at every turn."

Still, politicians have a history of putting campaign bitterness and even their own egos aside for what they think will work politically.

John Kennedy picked Lyndon Johnson as his running mate after a nomination struggle remembered as vicious, complete with rumors — some true — spread by Johnson's side about JFK's health.

Bill Clinton and Al Gore finished their years together strained and distant. The 2004 Democratic nominee, John Kerry, had a difficult relationship with his running mate, John Edwards, and sided with Obama instead of Edwards in 2008.

Hillary Clinton preserved her candidacy Tuesday by winning Texas, Ohio and Rhode Island primaries.

Asked Wednesday on CBS about running with Obama instead of against him, she said: "That may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of ticket. I think the people of Ohio very clearly said that it should be me."

Yet she did not rule out being Obama's running mate.

All of that leaves open the possibility that their polarizing duel could join in a complementary duality if the race doesn't shake out.

"Hillary is strong, but Obama has the ear of the people," said Judy Botson, 57, a Houston nurse. She voted for Obama on Tuesday, without thinking she just might end up with some of both.