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“Well, there is a question of whether it’s ever appropriate to engage in an exercise in gaudy, celebrity-drenched self-adulation, but that’s a separate question.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by the New York Times, on whether it’s safe for President Biden to attend the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, given the Covid risks.
“It is not a tenable strategy… His message is that he’s the guy who can beat Donald Trump and he is viewed as the least risky choice. Over time, if the only interactions he has is around these screwups and gaffes, then he is going to start losing that message.”
— David Axelrod, quoted by the Daily Beast, saying Joe’s Biden’s media avoidance strategy isn’t viable.
“I don’t care how experienced you are. I don’t care how many good people you have around you. That is not a job for 80-year-olds.”
— James Carville, in a podcast interview with David Axelrod, on Joe Biden’s candidacy for president.
“Jim Comey didn’t tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin after the convention. Jim Comey didn’t say ‘don’t put any resources into Michigan until the final week of the campaign.’”
— David Axelrod, saying that although Hillary Clinton has a “legitimate beef” with FBI Director James Comey, Comey is not responsible for the mistakes of her campaign, Politico reports.
The media may be a dirty filter at times, but it’s the filter through which you communicate to the American people. It impedes your effectiveness if you view this as a relentlessly adversarial relationship.
— David Axelrod, in an interview with NPR.
Iran is like the health care debate for Republicans. They’re filled with rage but not with ideas.
— David Axelrod, quoted by the Washington Post.
I suspect Dr. Ben Carson is about to learn that running for President of the United States is not brain surgery.
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 4, 2015
I know Elizabeth Warren well, and my strong feeling is she’s not going to run. I think she’s trying to influence the direction of the party, and you have more influence as a potential candidate than you do if you take yourself out. So she’s allowing, she’s sticking to this language of ‘I’m not running for president,’ and titillating people with it, because it gives her more leverage.
— Former Obama adviser David Axelrod, telling Hugh Hewitt that he doesn’t think Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) poses a credible threat to Hillary Clinton’s likely presidential bid in 2016. He added: “Hillary is probably as well-positioned within her own party as any open seat candidate has been in our lifetime.”
He’s going down a checklist of thorny, longstanding problems, and he’s doing whatever he can to tackle them. These are things that have been tearing at us for decades and generations. My sense is his feeling is, I’m not going to leave office without doing everything I can to stop them.
— David Axelrod, quoted by the New York Times, on President Obama’s recent actions.
There’s no doubt that there’s a theatrical nature to the presidency that he resists. Sometimes he can be negligent in the symbolism.
— David Axelrod, quoted by Businessweek, on President Obama’s management style.