An Expanding Obama Universe

"Top Hillarylander mulls Obama job," reports Ben Smith: Former Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle and Obama chief strategist David Axelrod reportedly discuss, informally, what role PSD might play in an Obama campaign. Solis Doyle tells me: "I'm with Hillary, and I have been for 17 years." But Axelrod tells Smith: "I know that she wants to be helpful in a general election campaign," which leads to the question: how would he know that if she and he didn't talk about?

Backstory: PSD got her start in politics in Chicago, and she and Ax are friends and talk frequently, and it stands to reason that PSD would help the Obama campaign if he were the nominee; she's told friends and colleagues that she very much admires Obama. Inside the Clinton campaign today, there is anger at Solis Doyle for letting informal chatter like this get out. Says one top campaign official: "It's a funny world we live in."

Significance: If Obama's the nominee, more Hillarylanders will work for him than some might suspect given the tension between the two camps.