USA Today reports:

Days, perhaps hours, before an expected announcement of his running mate, Barack Obama offered some clues Tuesday as to what he's looking for, suggesting that his pick might be an independent-minded person with a strong populist streak.
"I won't hand over my energy policy to my vice president without knowing necessarily what he's doing," the presumptive Democratic nominee said.

Obama dropped the masculine pronoun several times in an answer to a supporter's question here about his plans for his running mate. It was not clear whether it was a generic "he," or a signal that New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius are no longer under consideration.

With a slew of new polls coming out that have not been good for Obama, I wonder if his camp is rethinking their strategy for selecting a VP?

Check out this CBS/NY Times poll:

Senator Hillary Clinton is by far the favorite choice for the number two spot on the Democratic ticket, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll of delegates to the Democratic convention. When asked who they would like Barack Obama to select, 28 percent volunteer her as their top choice for Vice Presidential nominee.

What's even more fascinating about this poll is that even Obama delegates like Hillary:

Thirty-five percent of Obama's pledged delegates think having Clinton's name on the ticket would help Obama win in November, 23 percent of them say choosing her would hurt.

I've made my thoughts known a while back that I thought she should be the VP.

Hillary can help Obama win Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. As we saw in the primary, women, elderly, Jewish and Latino voters really liked her as well. The media spotlight will be all his for another long period of time while McCain is left to stir up a little publicity with Bobby "what's evolution?" Jindal or the boring wonder bread that is Romney. Maybe it will give him time to produce another video crying to the media that his VP pick wasn't covered as much as Obama's.

I didn't support any candidate in the primary so I could be much more pragmatic as we moved forward into the general. I think it's a smart choice. Do Biden, Bayh, Kaine or any other pick left standing represent his "change narrative?" No, because Obama is the narrative. He brings the change. He won the primary. Of course there are those that feel much differently. I'm just offering my thoughts. Many of my C&L writers don't agree with me either. The blogosphere should be the place that we discuss these issues. There are so many undecided voters that I bet many of them are Hillary supporters. In my opinion her nomination would send a jolt of electricity throughout the country and into Denver.

From the USA Today article---it doesn't look like it will happen. Huff Po's Roy Sekoff -- a huge Obama supporter -- was on The Verdict last night and echoed my same points. Howie does too. I don't care about the power structure in DC. I want to win the White House. And if Hillary helps Obama--then I'm cool with it. And Obama can handle it too. But, it's his call and we'll all support whoever he chooses. It's his party now...We'll find out soon.