Senior advisers to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) on Monday sought to reconcile the campaign’s assertion that rival Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) has not passed the “commander-in-chief test” with the Clintons’ hints in recent days that the New York senator would tap Obama as a running mate.

Howard Wolfson, Clinton’s chief spokesman, said during a conference call with reporters that Clinton would reject any running mate who has not met the “national security threshold,” as Clinton’s military advisers and Wolfson put it on the call. But he added that it is possible Obama could meet that threshold by this summer’s Democratic convention.

When asked if Obama could do something to cross that “threshold,” Wolfson said, “It’s not something that I’m prepared to rule out at this time.”

Obama campaign representatives responded to the confusion created by Wolfson’s statement, with campaign spokesman Bill Burton calling it “perplexing” and foreign policy adviser Susan Rice saying it was “amusing.”

As he was campaigning in Mississippi Monday, Obama also responded with incredulity, according to reports.

“If I’m not ready, how is it that you think I should be such a great vice president?” Obama said, according to The New York Times. “Do you understand that?”

The Times said Obama’s tone went “from stern to mocking to sarcastic” in addressing the possibility of serving as Clinton’s running mate.

At an afternoon press conference in Washington, Obama’s foreign policy advisers, including Rice and former service secretaries Richard Danzig, Clifford Alexander and Whitten Peters, responded by mocking the apparent contradiction suggested by the Clinton campaign.

Alexander went as far as to mention Wolfson by name.

“Howard Wolfson has a particular role. It’s a spokesman’s role,” Alexander said. “It’s a role to agitate, if he can.”

Alexander added that the issues of the day are “far more important” than Wolfson’s attempt to “agitate.”

In recent days, Clinton and former President Bill Clinton have been suggesting that if the New York senator wins the Democratic nomination, she would strongly consider Obama as her running mate.

Over the weekend in Mississippi, which holds its primary Tuesday, the former president went so far as to discuss the two candidates’ demographic strengths, saying the ticket would be “unstoppable.”

Democratic strategist Steve Murphy, who worked on New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson’s presidential campaign, told The Hill last month that the Clintons might make such an overture in hopes of enticing torn Democratic voters with a two-for-one scenario. At the time, the Clinton campaign was struggling.

But Murphy said Monday that Obama has grown too strong as a candidate to be seen as needing a place on the ticket behind Clinton.

“I predicted they’d start pushing Obama for veep as a way of marginalizing him,” Murphy said in an e-mail. “[It’s] too late for that now, though.”