Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton 2012?

CNN is running an interview with Bob Woodward where he speculates that there is a strong chance that President Barack Obama will ask Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to serve as vice president in 2012. Woodward believes Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden could switch positions.

Changing out the vice president does not always work for presidents. It did not work in 1976 when Gerald Ford dumped Nelson Rockefeller in favor of Bob Dole. The gamble paid off for FDR -- twice. FDR cut John Nance Garner off in favor of Henry Wallace, only to throw Wallace aside in 1944 for Harry Truman.

Most of the presidents who replaced their vice presidents in the 19th century went on to win a second term: Jefferson, Jackson, Lincoln and Grant. But there were some exceptions. John Quincy Adams feuded with his understudy John C. Calhoun and replaced him with Richard Rush. The Adams-Rush ticket lost in 1828 to Jackson and John C. Calhoun. Benjamin Harrison tossed aside Levin Morton in 1892, but it did not work as he lost to Grover Cleveland.

Ford, who relied heavily on Rockefeller to beat out Ronald Reagan for the Republican nomination in 1976 despite having already tossed him off the ticket, was an advocate for tossing aside the VP. He urged George H.W. Bush to toss off Dan Quayle in 1992 and thought George W. Bush should kick Dick Cheney off the ticket in 2004 -- despite the fact that Cheney had been White House chief of staff in the Ford administration.