Opinion: Even in Sweden, Hillary Clinton loyalists are stirred up

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We knew Barack Obama would have trouble winning over Hillary Clinton loyalists in places like Columbus, Ohio, and Morgantown, W.Va. and the middle of Pennsylvania where all those bitter, smalltown gun owners live.

But who thought there would be an issue in Stockholm, Sweden?

The Scandinavia problem surfaced when a Democratic political strategist offered an analysis of his party’s vice presidential sweepstakes Thursday night to the Democrats Abroad organization in Stockholm.

Kevin Lampe said he didn’t believe Obama would choose Clinton or, for that matter, any other woman as his vice presidential running mate.

Lampe’s reasoning, according to folks who attended the...

...dinner over there, was it would antagonize Clinton and her supporters if Obama passed her over and picked another woman instead. (As if Clinton and her supporters weren’t already antagonized by simply losing.)

Those comments caused a good measure of consternation on both sides of the Atlantic, partly because guests over there thought they were getting the word from a full-fledged member of Team Obama. The invitation identified Lampe as a ‘campaign advisor.’

However, in an interview Friday, Lampe denied he was working for the Obama campaign -- a point confirmed by Obama’s press office. And Lampe emphasized that he has no special insight into Obama’s thinking.

‘I’m playing the guessing game like everyone else,’ he said.

Still, it would be easy to think that Lampe might have the inside scoop. A picture on Lampe’s business website shows him talking to Michelle and Barack Obama in 2004, just before Obama delivered his heralded speech at the Democratic convention in Boston. In the photo, Obama has his hand on Lampe’s shoulder, which might mean something. Then again maybe he had some lint there.

Lampe, who has an office in Chicago, said he’s known Obama since before the Illinois lawyer was elected to the state Senate there in 1996.

Many at the dinner took Lampe’s words seriously.

“He said he [Obama] wouldn’t choose Hillary and he wouldn’t choose another woman to be fair,’ said Sandy Mansson, who lives in Stockholm and heard Lampe’s talk. “I guess she [Clinton] is just not a member of the big boys’ club.’

Mansson added: ‘I think it would be very good strategy to have her as his running mate because it would unite the party. I know Hillary supporters who will not vote for Obama, which I think is a shame.’

Another audience member said he was disappointed to hear Lampe’s analysis. J. Graigory, a 37-year-old writer living in Stockholm, said it would be “ironic’ for Obama to take this view given that the convention will take place during the 88th anniversary of the American women’s right to vote.

“He said if Hillary is not given the VP spot then Barack is not going to offer it to any woman because it would be seen as a slap in the face to Hillary,’ Graigory said.

For Obama to reject Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius ‘or anyone else because they’re a woman or because he is trying to keep the Hillary Democrats in the fold is wrong,’ Graigory added.

Still, the Obama campaign advised against reading anything into what’s being said about the selection of a running mate. Bill Burton, an Obama spokesman, said: “The people who know anything about the vice presidential process on our campaign are not talking about it.’

-- Peter Nicholas