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Hillary and Bill Clinton are again teaming up on Barack Obama — this time saying the first-term U.S. lawmaker, whom they have derided as inexperienced, would be a strong running mate on a Democratic presidential ticket headed by the former first lady.

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The maneuver may also be aimed at countering an image in voters’ minds of Obama as presidential material and at helping restore an aura of inevitability as the party’s nominee that Clinton had early in the campaign but lost.

“The Clintons are in a difficult position,” said Dennis Goldford, a political science professor at Drake University in Iowa, who has tracked the presidential race.

“If she wins the Democratic presidential nomination, she would need Obama’s supporters. But she needs to be careful. If this talk of him on the ticket is seen as a cynical maneuver, it could backfire and hurt her,” Goldford said.

Former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota, an Obama backer, mocked the idea.

“It may be the first time in history that the person who is running number two would offer the person running number one the number two position,” Daschle told “Meet the Press.”