So, I see that people think my friends' idea of Clinton as real President is goofy. Maybe, in the end, it's one idealistic democrat trying to rationalize to another why the fresher Obama isn't the right idea.

Still, I think there's more merit to the hypo than people are allowing. What, exactly, do people think Bill Clinton is likely to do in a Hillary White House? He is still a great (and I never liked him. My first political involvement of any kind was a article in my high school newspaper endorsing Dole) man at the height of his powers. I think it is safe to say that but for the constitution, he could easily be re-elected right now. Many of his former advisors are personally loyal to him, and there is, I think, a great wave of nostalgia in Democratic circles for his presidency.
Is that kind of man really going to fade into the twilight? To me, that's really the odd idea here, the idea that's out of touch with how things work. And, it seems to me, it is equally out of touch to think that voters inclined positively towards Bill will not take his presence into account when considering Hillary.

I realize that the two Bush's are the counterexample here. It is true that George H.W. has not been called in to fix George W's various woes, nor has he been accused of running a shadow government. But these are quite different situations. George H.W. was obviously retired when his son was elected. There was some talk of H.W.'s brain trust helping W., (and we have seen H.W. advisors filtering into W.'s administration) but H.W. had also lost his last election, and there was no sense he is still a viable candidate. In contrast, I think I can safely say that Bill Clinton would instantly become the bona fide frontrunner in any primary race if he could enter. I don't know that any democrat could even stand against him, much less challenge.

With that sort of giant on the sidelines, I don't think it very strange that people would try to sell Hillary to sceptics by invoking Bill as a worst case scenario safety blanket. His presence in the administration is flatly inevitably. You have to find some way to explain what he is. And saying that his potentially disruptive presence is actually a positive seems to me a fairly clever way to spin.