There were more probing stories, it kind of culminated in March with the frenzy around Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

David Axelrod

Categorized in : Politics

I'm a kibitzer with a broad portfolio. by David Axelrod

I'm a kibitzer with a broad portfolio.

portfolios broads

Any time you have loose ballots, you have to worry about shenanigans. It's a shame such a hard-fought election has to come down to something like this.

shenanigans election worry

I think President Obama is a committed, practicing nonideologue. He's consumed by neither tactics nor ideology. He is more concerned about outcomes than he is about process and categorizations

tactics president thinking

I think those autoworkers whose industry would have collapsed if the president hadn't intervened are certainly better off.

better-off president thinking

I think that the millions and millions of young Americans, young Americans, who have health care today, who wouldn't have had it if the president hadn't acted are better off.

care president thinking

I think the average American recognizes that it took years to create the crisis that erupted in 2008 and peaked in January of 2009. And it's going to take some time to work through it.

average years thinking

I think the millions of people who had been able to renegotiate their mortgages so they are paying lower interest rates are better off.

able people thinking

Two years before the last election you nor anyone else would have predicted that Barack Obama was going to get elected president of the United States.

This marketplace where people can buy insurance who don't have it today, a competitive marketplace - that's an idea that both sides embrace.

two-sides people ideas

But obviously, we're looking for all good ideas to help deal with our long-term debt problem. This is something that is going to affect our economy. It affects our kids. And we need to deal with it.

long kids ideas

The truth is that as we move forward, if one side says we can't raise any taxes on anybody or any interest, and the other side says we can't cut anything, we're obviously not going to make progress on this. And our interest is in making progress on this.

progress cutting moving

We don't want to go back to the same policies and practicies that drove our economy into a ditch, that punished the middle class, and that led to this catastrophe. We keep moving forward.

failure letting-go moving

I have never believed in the Wizard of Oz theory of consulting, that I am all-knowing and all-seeing, and that everyone around me is kind of a backbencher

wizards kind knowing

I came to the conclusion months ago, and I said it to members of Congress, that the only way people are going to fully appreciate what this reform is if we pass it and implement it and it becomes not a caricature but a reality, and I still believe that. So I think it will be easier to sell it moving forward than it was to this point.

believe reality moving

If you look at the themes that he struck from the minute he started running for president through today, there is a very high level of consistency, and there is a sense that he is who he is. Obama's governing is completely consistent with the way he campaigned and the themes on which he campaigned, the issues he highlighted, the vision he shared.

issues romance running

I think that more and more you're going to see people of good will on their side of the aisle say you know what, we got to get off the bus here, this is not headed in the right direction.

sides people thinking

I think that the foundation for these candidacies is pretty clear, in the case of Elizabeth Warren and Sanders it's incumbent on them to expand their bases.

I think age is a very legitimate issue, this is the hardest job on the planet. And( it is) sensible to ask the question whether people who are nearing 80 years old when they enter office are prepared for it.

No one is going to hand Biden the Democratic nomination. He'll have to engage fully and fight for it if he is to get the face-off with Trump he is seeking.

How do you capture the data and build relationships with all the people suddenly eager to help ? How do you quickly build an organization equipped to utilize that data and those relationships and develop a strategy, particularly in the must-win early states, and how do you prepare for the sterner tests that come for a' hot' candidate, as media and opponents begin to poke and prod with greater intensity to see if you are up to the job.