Hillary. Sarah. Coffee. Really?

By Jennifer J. Foster

From the Associated Press:

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she would be happy to talk to Sarah Palin over coffee.

In an interview for broadcast Sunday on NBC television’s “Meet the Press,“ Clinton says she’s never met the one-time Republican vice presidential hopeful and former Alaska governor and thinks it would be very interesting to sit down and talk with her.

Clinton was responding to a question about a passage in Palin’s new book. Palin writes that if she and Clinton ever meet for coffee, “I know that we would fundamentally disagree on many issues.“ ...

Clinton, in Singapore for a meeting of world leaders, says she’s ready to have a cup of coffee and maybe she could make a case on some of the issues on which the two women disagree.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall for that discussion!

Clinton-meets-Palin would be “very interesting”? I’d call that the understatement of the century.

Pundits are abuzz over Clinton’s friendly reception to Palin’s written hypothetical. Mark Sappenfield, writing for the Christian Science Monitor, could hardly contain himself, even coming up with a catchy name for the potential Central Perk-meets-politics event:

It was, almost certainly, a moment of Sunday morning small talk. Yet if cable news’ coverage of Obama’s Beer Summit is anything to go by – with their countdown timers to zero hour and careful deconstruction of each man’s beer selection – CNN, Fox News, and MSBNC are surely mustering all of their resources into seeing if there is any possible way to bring about Clinton Kaffeklatsch (a.k.a. “Beer Summit, the Sequel”).

Yes, cable news’ coverage ... and, dudes writing for the Christian Science Monitor.

As Sappenfield notes, Clinton declined to attack Palin during the 2008 presidential campaign, even when she was given plenty of opportunity—and legitimate reason—to do so. So who knows? Maybe the two would actually—cough cough—get along!!!

Then again, that wouldn’t exactly be good for Palin’s image, what with Hillary being the Wicked Witch of the East to all those Republican women (read: people to whom Palin is trying to sell her book).

Oh well. We can dream!!