Speculating that President Barack Obama will replace Vice President Joe Biden with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the 2012 ticket has been a private pastime among some Democrats over the past few months, and it broke into the open Tuesday night when investigative reporter Bob Woodward said in an interview on CNN it was a possibility. 
 
 Appearing on "John King, USA" to promote his book “Obama’s Wars,” Woodward was asked by King about possible “political asides” that cropped up while he was doing research. 
 
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 reset VIDEO: Woodward weighs in POLITICO 44 
 
 “A lot of people think if the president's a little weak going into 2012, he'll have to do a switch there and run with Hillary Clinton as his running mate,” King said, repeating gossip that’s swirled for several months and appeared from time to time on blogs. 
 
 “It's on the table,” Woodward replied. “And some of Hillary Clinton's advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012. President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the 2008 primaries. So they switch jobs and [it's] not out of the question. The other interesting question is, Hillary Clinton could run in her own right in 2016 and be younger than Ronald Reagan when he was elected president.” 
 
 Woodward did not offer any evidence that the idea is under consideration by either Obama or Clinton. A senior administration official said that any suggestion of replacing Biden with the secretary of state is totally off base. 
 
 Obama is happy with Biden as his vice president and Clinton as his secretary of state, the official told POLITICO, “and he wants them to keep on doing what they’re doing.” 
 
 One Democratic source said that the rumor has been circulating among some of Clinton’s longtime supporters. Another Democratic Party source with ties to the Clintons said, “There's so many rumors going around. But I don't believe this is true.” 
 
 In addition to being talked about as Obama’s running mate in 2012, POLITICO reported in May that some of Clinton’s allies have floated the notion that she should replace Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon when he makes his long-planned exit from the administration. 
 
 Maggie Haberman contributed to this report. ||||| 446 days ago 
 
 (CNN) – Some called a Barack Obama-Hillary Clinton pairing the "Dream Ticket" in 2008. It didn't happen. 
 
 But what about 2012? 
 
 "It's on the table," veteran Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward told CNN's John King in an interview Tuesday on John King, USA. "Some of Hillary Clinton's advisers see it as a real possibility in 2012." 
 
 
 
 The scenario – whereby Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would switch positions - has been bandied about by political observers for months, seen by some as a potentially savvy strategy to gin up excitement among what appears to be a depressed Democratic base. 
 
 But it's never been clear if the idea has been actually discussed in the White House, until now. 
 
 "President Obama needs some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the [2008] primaries and, so they switch jobs, not out of the question, and the other interesting question is, Hillary Clinton could run in her own right in 2016 and be younger than Ronald Reagan when he was elected president." 
 
 Clinton will be 69 years old and three months in January 2017. President Ronald Reagan was just shy of his 70th birthday in January, 1980. 
 
 "Now you talk to Hillary Clinton or her advisers and they say 'no, no there's not a political consideration here,'" Woodward continued. "Of course the answer is, you point out to them that her clout around the world when she goes to Europe, Asia, anywhere is in part, not just because she's Secretary of State or because she was married to President Clinton, that people see a potential future president in her." 
 
 The latest politico to predict an Obama-Clinton ticket in 2012 was former Bush Chief of Staff Andy Card, who, during an interview with CNN, said the notion doesn't surprise him. 
 
 "That would shake things up," said Card.
– Rumors have been swirling around the Beltway that Hillary Clinton might replace Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket, and Bob Woodward gave them a little stir last night on CNN. Asked by John King if he thought Clinton would step in, Woodward readily replied, “It’s on the table. And some of Hillary Clinton’s advisers see it as a real possibility. In 2012, President Obama needs help with some of the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with … so they switch jobs. Not out of the question.” So will it happen? Officials tell Politico that Obama is happy with both Clinton and Biden in their current jobs, “and he wants them to keep on doing what they’re doing.” The rumor appears to be circulating primarily among Clinton's longtime supporters. "There's so many rumors going around," says one Democrat close to the Clintons, "But I don't believe this is true." Some have also raised the possibility that Clinton could instead slide into the defense secretary job when Robert Gates leaves.