David Axelrod recently got a gift in the mail.
It was a box of political pins that captured the unique role that the former top Barack Obama strategist has carved out for himself as a 2024 political commentator — and how allies of the current president see Axelrod at this moment in time.
The message on the pins? “Pricks for Biden.”
For years now, Axelrod has used his many platforms — two podcasts, CNN punditry and regular interviews with political reporters — to offer a lot of unvarnished advice for and criticism of Joe Biden.
In November, he suggested Biden think long and hard about running for reelection. He has been withering about Biden’s skills as a candidate and communicator. He is deeply concerned about the president’s age. And unlike other Democrats in the anti-bedwetting set, Axe has been clear that the party should be freaked out by the polls.
All of this has made Axelrod a bit of an irritant to the president.
Thus the joke pins. My colleague Jonathan Martin reported in the fall that Biden recently used the P word (“prick”) to describe Axelrod.
Mike Murphy, the Republican strategist who co-hosts the “Hacks on Tap” podcast with Axelrod, recently joked that if Biden were to get close to Axelrod, the president may end up convicted of manslaughter. (“I’m too quick for him!” Axelrod responded.)
With the first voting of the year about to begin, we sat down in the lobby at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and discussed his critiques of the Biden operation, the parallels with 2012 when he led strategy for the Obama reelection, and what it’s like to be a critic of your own party when most partisans these days are expected to mouth the party line.
A lot of prominent Democratic strategists basically just sing from the same songbook — “Don’t be a critic.” Why did you think, “No, my role is going to be a little bit different?”
When I came to CNN, I had a conversation with Jeff Zucker and I said, “Listen, I do not want to be in a box arguing with some pimply-faced young Republican strategist about Roe v. Wade. There are plenty of partisans out there who are really good at what they do. But I want to bring the value of 40 years of experience, and if you want that, that’s what I want to do.” And that entails being analytical — even about your friends.
I’m not looking to antagonize people who I like and care about. And let me just say: I honestly believe Joe Biden has done some things that will have historical meaning — the infrastructure bill, some of the health care things he’s done, leading the country through the pandemic and, of course, restoring some sense of dignity to the White House.
I know that people expect 100 percent loyalty, but that’s not my job.
It’s pretty obvious that there are challenges here, and it seemed pretty obvious to me when I suggested in early November that he think hard about what he’s doing. I was 99 percent sure that that would not mean anything, but I thought there was a 1 percent chance that he would actually rethink the thing. I did want to help promote a conversation about this — the urgency of the moment — because it felt like things were moving slower than they should.
The argument on the other side is: This is the one group of people in the Democratic Party who know how to run a winning campaign against Donald Trump. It’s not going to be a mystery how to do it.
So it’s interesting: There is a treasure trove of experience in that White House. But probably some of it should be sitting over at the campaign.
I have nothing but respect for the wisdom and experience of the people there. But I think there is a little bit of a misunderstanding about 2020, at least from my perspective. There was a recognition — it mostly played out at the convention, which I think was the most message-intensive and well-conceived message exercise of the campaign — that the things that were stressed were Biden’s middle-class roots, his faith, his attachment to the military. Things that signified to people in middle America: He’s actually from here, he’s one of us. And I think that, as much as anything, sealed the deal.
I’m not sure that it was just about the “soul of America.” I think it was about the nature of the working class. And I hope they get back to some of those themes. The next few weeks and months are going to be really, really important. And I’ll be looking for: Are some of those really talented people from the White House going to go over.
Some people have said, “Well, aren’t all reelections always run from the White House? What’s the issue there?”
It is a complex venture to run a campaign. Jen O’Malley Dillon, who’s sitting in the White House now as deputy chief of staff, she’s got a sophisticated understanding of campaigns, and I think that she has a lot of influence over the campaign right now. But unless you’re there day to day — and especially if you have a challenging second job that requires a lot of time, including traveling with the president — I think it’s hard to do.
Mike Donilon is someone I’ve worked with. He was on our team in 2008, in the general election. Really a brilliant guy, good instincts. But he’s in the White House right now instead of in the campaign headquarters, informing what they’re doing every day.
In our campaign, David Plouffe, who was my partner —
You guys swapped.
Yeah. So he went from the outside to the inside, and I went from the inside to the outside. He’s an incomparable political operative. We all had been working together for years. He was a liaison between the White House, the campaign and everybody in Chicago. We were communicating with each other only about the campaign from minute to minute. And I think that campaigns require that.
What would be a setup that would be similar, that you would suggest that they do here?
Well, I don’t know. First of all, it’s what the president requires, and he may want some of these people closer to him. I don’t know. They’ve got a campaign manager, but —
Is she empowered?
And even if she is, when you have an experienced player like Jen sitting in the White House …
They’re going to be running things.
Yeah. But like I said: If she’s going to be running it in some capacity, you can’t do that as sort of a side job.
The rest here…
www.politico.com
It was a box of political pins that captured the unique role that the former top Barack Obama strategist has carved out for himself as a 2024 political commentator — and how allies of the current president see Axelrod at this moment in time.
The message on the pins? “Pricks for Biden.”
For years now, Axelrod has used his many platforms — two podcasts, CNN punditry and regular interviews with political reporters — to offer a lot of unvarnished advice for and criticism of Joe Biden.
In November, he suggested Biden think long and hard about running for reelection. He has been withering about Biden’s skills as a candidate and communicator. He is deeply concerned about the president’s age. And unlike other Democrats in the anti-bedwetting set, Axe has been clear that the party should be freaked out by the polls.
All of this has made Axelrod a bit of an irritant to the president.
Thus the joke pins. My colleague Jonathan Martin reported in the fall that Biden recently used the P word (“prick”) to describe Axelrod.
Mike Murphy, the Republican strategist who co-hosts the “Hacks on Tap” podcast with Axelrod, recently joked that if Biden were to get close to Axelrod, the president may end up convicted of manslaughter. (“I’m too quick for him!” Axelrod responded.)
With the first voting of the year about to begin, we sat down in the lobby at the Hotel Fort Des Moines and discussed his critiques of the Biden operation, the parallels with 2012 when he led strategy for the Obama reelection, and what it’s like to be a critic of your own party when most partisans these days are expected to mouth the party line.
A lot of prominent Democratic strategists basically just sing from the same songbook — “Don’t be a critic.” Why did you think, “No, my role is going to be a little bit different?”
When I came to CNN, I had a conversation with Jeff Zucker and I said, “Listen, I do not want to be in a box arguing with some pimply-faced young Republican strategist about Roe v. Wade. There are plenty of partisans out there who are really good at what they do. But I want to bring the value of 40 years of experience, and if you want that, that’s what I want to do.” And that entails being analytical — even about your friends.
I’m not looking to antagonize people who I like and care about. And let me just say: I honestly believe Joe Biden has done some things that will have historical meaning — the infrastructure bill, some of the health care things he’s done, leading the country through the pandemic and, of course, restoring some sense of dignity to the White House.
I know that people expect 100 percent loyalty, but that’s not my job.
It’s pretty obvious that there are challenges here, and it seemed pretty obvious to me when I suggested in early November that he think hard about what he’s doing. I was 99 percent sure that that would not mean anything, but I thought there was a 1 percent chance that he would actually rethink the thing. I did want to help promote a conversation about this — the urgency of the moment — because it felt like things were moving slower than they should.
The argument on the other side is: This is the one group of people in the Democratic Party who know how to run a winning campaign against Donald Trump. It’s not going to be a mystery how to do it.
So it’s interesting: There is a treasure trove of experience in that White House. But probably some of it should be sitting over at the campaign.
I have nothing but respect for the wisdom and experience of the people there. But I think there is a little bit of a misunderstanding about 2020, at least from my perspective. There was a recognition — it mostly played out at the convention, which I think was the most message-intensive and well-conceived message exercise of the campaign — that the things that were stressed were Biden’s middle-class roots, his faith, his attachment to the military. Things that signified to people in middle America: He’s actually from here, he’s one of us. And I think that, as much as anything, sealed the deal.
I’m not sure that it was just about the “soul of America.” I think it was about the nature of the working class. And I hope they get back to some of those themes. The next few weeks and months are going to be really, really important. And I’ll be looking for: Are some of those really talented people from the White House going to go over.
Some people have said, “Well, aren’t all reelections always run from the White House? What’s the issue there?”
It is a complex venture to run a campaign. Jen O’Malley Dillon, who’s sitting in the White House now as deputy chief of staff, she’s got a sophisticated understanding of campaigns, and I think that she has a lot of influence over the campaign right now. But unless you’re there day to day — and especially if you have a challenging second job that requires a lot of time, including traveling with the president — I think it’s hard to do.
Mike Donilon is someone I’ve worked with. He was on our team in 2008, in the general election. Really a brilliant guy, good instincts. But he’s in the White House right now instead of in the campaign headquarters, informing what they’re doing every day.
In our campaign, David Plouffe, who was my partner —
You guys swapped.
Yeah. So he went from the outside to the inside, and I went from the inside to the outside. He’s an incomparable political operative. We all had been working together for years. He was a liaison between the White House, the campaign and everybody in Chicago. We were communicating with each other only about the campaign from minute to minute. And I think that campaigns require that.
What would be a setup that would be similar, that you would suggest that they do here?
Well, I don’t know. First of all, it’s what the president requires, and he may want some of these people closer to him. I don’t know. They’ve got a campaign manager, but —
Is she empowered?
And even if she is, when you have an experienced player like Jen sitting in the White House …
They’re going to be running things.
Yeah. But like I said: If she’s going to be running it in some capacity, you can’t do that as sort of a side job.
The rest here…
Joe Biden Called David Axelrod a ‘Prick.’ It Won’t Shut Him Up.
A Q&A with the former Obama strategist who’s not afraid to critique the Biden campaign.
www.politico.com
