Although election 2008 is two weeks behind us, the surprises from the campaign just keep trickling out. As the rats jump McCain’s defunct campaign ship, goodies galore keep showing up in the press.

The latest little item involves a recently-uncovered deal between VP-wannabe Sarah Palin and Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. The two have their similarities, both in ideology and appearance. But it was the latter qualities that led to a deal that was quietly struck between Bachmann and Palin - with the complete blessings of McCain’s staff.

When we first heard the story this week, we thought: “hey, why not?” They both look the same. They kind of act the same.

Shortly after the GOP convention wrapped up in Minnesota in September, Ms. Bachmann, anxious for a slice of potential White House glory, offered her services to be Palin’s stunt-double if McCain/Palin were to win the election. Bachmann was no doubt hedging her own bets as well, just in case her House run didn’t work out as planned.

Bachmann claimed that, with some minor hairstyle changes, she could easily pass herself off as Palin, and said that most Americans are either too stupid or self-absorbed to notice anyway. McCain’s staff quickly seized the opportunity and offered her the job, contingent on the outcome of the election, of course.

It is well known that the President and Vice President rarely appear together, lest something bad happen to both of them and really screw up that whole succession of power thing. After all, who wants the Speaker of the House in there, mucking things up? A stunt double would enable the “VP” to show up side-by-side  in public with the President like never before. That would get people talking!

But the real driving factor behind the tentative deal was to limit the number of public blunders by Palin. The idea being that Palin would handle the VP fluff stuff herself: climbing in and out of Air Force Two, hanging out at White House cocktail parties, waving from motorcades, etc. Kinda hard to screw those things up.

Bachmann, on the other hand, would step into Palin’s shoes to do the heavier lifting: public speeches, media interviews, being sent as an envoy to various shithole countries, etc. Back in September it was believed by many in McCain’s camp that Bachmann, a former lawyer, possessed far superior public speaking and interviewing skills. Of course that was a month before Bachmann had her YouTube moment questioning the patriotism of Barack Obama and 535 Congressmen on national TV, but that’s another story.

What makes the imposter deal even better, is that Bachmann could do shit that a real Vice President would never dream of doing. Like showing up on the Howard Stern Show, or popping in as a guest on some reality TV series. She could M.C. grand openings at shopping malls or help Joe the Plumber install toilets at Habitat for Humanity construction sites. Eat BLTs at Applebee’s and fly coach. The possibilities are endless. She could really help portray Palin as “the people’s VP.”

It would be the perfect caper, and everyone involved truly believed that Bachmann could pull it off for four years without the public even noticing the difference.

But, as fate would have it, Palin lost her election and Bachmann won hers. So sad…we’ll never know what could’ve been.