The View from Europe (Well, Sweden…)

A few pearls of wisdom from the news and editorial pages of the Swedish media:

Aftonbladet foreign correspondent Wolfgang Hansson repeats the conventional wisdom, arguing that Obama would beat Romney in a national election. And then claims, because we are a nation of horrible racists, that "the US is more ready for a female president than a black president…Romney loses big in opinion polls when running against Obama and Clinton." Apparently, though, we still hate Mormons more. There is also considerable worry that the Mormon candidate will privatize the Swedish booze industry. Under the headline "Presidential Candidate Could Become Vodka King," Aftonbladet reports that "American presidential candidate Mitt Romney wants to buy the state-owned alcohol company Vin & Spirit. He is a part owner of Bain Capital, a company that recently placed a bid for the company." Scary stuff.

Headline of the day, also from the left-wing tabloid Aftonbladet: "Hillary's Secret Weapon: Tears Could Give Her Another Victory."

Over at Svenska Dagbladet, the country's largest conservative daily, opinion page editor PJ Anders Linder offers an endorsment: "If I were two people in California tonight—one red and one blue—I would cast my vote for John McCain and Barack Obama. As a Swede, I would switch out Obama for Clinton." More evidence in support of Alvaro Vargas Llosa's contention that the European right is "more enthusiastic about Obama" than the left.

Dagens Nyheter (DN), the country's largest broadsheet, reports objectively on conservative opposition to McCain: "'McCain will destroy the Republican party,' thundered the aggressive radio host Rush Limbaugh…James Dobson, one of the Christian right's trendsetting leaders, says that he can't support McCain as the Republican presidential candidate, and Ann Coulter, the poisonous, Clinton-hating conservative commentator, went so far as to promise to vote for Hillary Clinton if McCain wins the nomination. According to Coulter, Clinton is the more conservative of the two." Also from DN, a Swedish political scientist ponies up this brilliant bit of analysis: "Since he is new and fresh, there is something a little JFK about him—but a black version."