The need for such a ticket -- given 8-1 odds by London bookmaker Ladbrokes -- that could help heal the party has become more urgent as the drive for the Democratic presidential nomination becomes more fierce, USA Today reported Tuesday.

"It ain't a match made in heaven anymore," said Donna Brazile, a Democratic strategist who ran Al Gore's 2000 campaign, pointing to the increasingly bitter tone both campaigns are taking toward the other.

Democratic analysts expressed worry that voters under 30, energized by Obama's campaign, will stay away if Obama, D-Ill., isn't nominated. Also of concern is that white women over 50 who are part of the Clinton, D-N.Y., base could stay away if she isn't at the top of the ticket.

"I believe Democrats are exquisitely positioned to win the White House in 2008," Democratic pollster Mark Mellman, an adviser to John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election, wrote in The Hill. "The only thing that could defeat us is us and it feels like we just might."