Tag: David Axelrod

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Barack Obama Politics

David Axelrod – Obama is “Having the Time of his life right now”

The former senior political adviser to the president told CNN that the freedom from having to run another campaign has empowered the President, allowing him to better fight for his policies.

“He’s having the time of his life right now. I think he feels very much unrestrained in terms of speaking to all these issues,” Axelrod said in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on Wednesday.

Obama has indeed drawn notice for his newly relaxed and frank posture and comments, now that he’s nearing the end of his presidency. During his State of the Union address, Obama tossed a couple of zingers at Republicans, the likes of which had been absent in previous years.

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Politics

David Axelrod Fires Back at Hillary Clinton’s Swipe Against Obama

David Axelrod

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, Hillary Clinton, a potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nod in 2016, made a swipe at President Obama’s foreign policy decisions, implying that the president has acted stupidly in some of his foreign policy decisions.

“Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” Clinton is quoted as saying.

One member, or former member of the Obama administration has taken offense to Clinton’s summarization of President Obama,  and he strongly voiced his opposition on twitter.

In response to Clinton’s knock against the President, David Axelrod tweeted, Just to clarify: “Don’t do stupid stuff” means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision.

I must say, I totally agree with Mr. Axelrod.

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MSNBC Politics

Bob Woodward And David Axelrod Face Off Over Supposed “Threat” – Video

Both men were on MSNBC’s  Morning Joe and the confrontation was almost immediate due to Woodward’s claim that an email he received from the White House amounted to a “threat.”

Woodward, a well respected journalist, has been in the news all week because of some of his reporting, where he blamed President Obama as the originator of the Sequester. The White House has been on the defensive since Woodward’s claim, leading to the confrontation between the two men on Friday.

“When the full e-mails came out, they were as cordial as can be,” Axelrod said to Woodward on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “His e-mail was cordial, and your response was cordial. So if you felt threatened, why didn’t you say to Gene, ‘Don’t threaten me?’”

“You are putting words in my mouth,” Woodward responding, adding he never said he felt “threatened.” “I said, ‘I don’t think this is the way to operate.’”

Axelrod retorted: “I’m not putting words in your mouth, Bob. It’s your newspaper that said you said you were threatened.”

A Washington Post story posted Thursday did originally say in the headline that Woodward claimed the White House “threatened” him. The headline has since been changed.

On Fox News on Thursday night, Woodward said, “The problem I have with the Gene Sperling email — and this comes after a shouting match, lot’s of people shout at me — is that goes into the coded, ‘you better watch out’.”

The duo later debated whether Obama “moved the goalposts” on sequestration by insisting tax revenues be part of the package to avert it.

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Newt Gingrich Politics

Obama’s Team On Gingrich – “The Higher A Monkey Climbs… The More You See His Butt!”

Words of wisdom coming from David Axelrod, the top strategist and adviser to President Obama, suggesting that the more Newt Gingrich leads in the polls, the more scrutiny he’ll get. And with scrutiny, the skeletons come falling out!

Discussing the GOP primary electorate, Axelrod said, “All the energy is on the side of the Tea Party folks. And Gov. Romney comes from that other tradition of the Republican Party. And ya got to give him credit for trying. He’s done everything but light himself on fire for the last eight weeks trying to win.”

Then Axelrod turned to Gingrich–who has resurrected his candidacy after nearly tanking earlier in the year.

“Now Newt is back. Last week you all left him for dead at the checkout counter at Tiffany’s and now he’s back, a lion in winter,” Axelrod quipped. “That’s L-I-O-N by the way, I don’t want to stir up any trouble here.”

The Obama team has been tying Gingrich to the Tea Party movement, and Axelrod reinforced this messaging at the briefing.

“In certain ways [Gingrich] fits the role for this, because as we pointed out earlier in the week he is the original tea partier. You know, he brought that kind of politics to Congress in the early 90s, he led three government shut downs in order to try and roll back environmental protection…roll back the Department of Education and education programs, he wanted to cut Medicare, he wanted to give more tax cuts to the wealthy. He was really a forerunner of what we see today.”

Axelrod also noted that Gingrich has a long record that will be scrubbed and scrutinized.

“So the question is, can he sustain this over time?,” Axelrod said.

“I told my colleagues yesterday a bit of homespun wisdom that I got from an alderman in Chicago some years ago when one of his …colleagues wanted to run for higher office and he was really dubious. He said, ‘just remember the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his butt.’ So, you know, the Speaker is very high on the pole right now and we’ll see how people like the view.”

Just what you need – a vision of Newt’s monkey butt. Hope you’re not having dinner. 🙂

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