'Advisor' doesn't believe Barack Obama will choose a woman for vice president

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 Sweden's capital.

Kevin Lampe said he didn't believe Obama would choose Clinton or, for that matter, any other woman as his running mate. Lampe's reasoning, according to folks who attended the dinner, was that it would antagonize Clinton and her supporters if Obama passed her over and instead picked another woman. (As if Clinton and her supporters weren't already antagonized by simply losing.)

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

But in an interview Friday, Lampe denied he was working for the Obama campaign -- a point confirmed by the presumptive Democratic nominee'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 his business website shows him talking to Michelle and Barack Obama in 2004, just before Obama delivered his heralded speech at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. In the photo, Obama has his hand on Lampe's shoulder, which might mean something. Then again, maybe Lampe had some lint that needed removing.

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

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

Gay marriage less an issue: Rove

For many voters, it's an article of faith that political consultant Karl Rove orchestrated the 2004 ballot fight over same-sex marriage to help push conservatives to the polls. In the process, the theory goes, those voters also helped President Bush win reelection.