David Axelrod
Axelrod: 'We have the ball, we have the lead'
On a conference call this morning, David Axelrod and Jim Messina, two top advisers to President Obama's re-election campaign, told reporters the recent surge from Mitt Romney puts the race right where they've always expected, and there are no plans to pull out of any battleground states.
"This race has settled into exactly where we thought it would be," said Axelrod. More
A Sunday show preview of the foreign policy debate
With less than three weeks left until an election about the nation's struggling economy, the Sunday shows this weekend were mostly focused abroad.
On the eve of the third and final presidential debate, about foreign policy, Democrats continued batting back Republican claims that the Obama administration tailored its response to the death of four Americans in Benghazi to fit a campaign narrative that Al Qaeda had been effectively extinguished. More
Libya Sunday: Administration, under pressure, responds to 'wing-tip cowboys'
On Sunday morning, just two days before the second presidential debate, and a few days after the lone vice presidential debate, the focus of "Face the Nation" was squarely on Libya. More
Mitt Romney as Elmer Gantry and Monty Hall
After Mitt Romney's convincing debate performance on Wednesday night, Democrats went out of their way on Sunday morning to cast it as a disingenuous, Oscar-worthy act.
"I'm not going to take away from Mitt's masterful theatrical performance," said Robert Gibbs, a senior adviser to President Obama's re-election campaign, putting a flourish on the campaign's main talking point across the Sunday shows. "He did a superb acting job. You know, he did everything but learn tap dance." More
Axelrod acknowledges supporter complaints, promises 'strategic adjustments'
David Axelrod defended President Obama's decision not to aggressively attack Mitt Romney last night, even as the top adviser promised some revisions to the president's strategy before the next debate.
"He made a choice last night to answer the questions that were asked and to talk to the American people about what we need to do to move forward, and not get into serial fact-checking with Governor Romney, which can be an exhausting, never-ending pursuit," Axelrod said, on a conference call with reporters this morning.
"But obviously moving forward we're going to take a hard look at this and we're going to have to make some judgments as to where to draw the lines in these debates and how to use our time." More
Axelrod agrees with Republicans on Medicare debate and George W. Bush
On a "state of the race" conference call with reporters this afternoon, David Axelrod and Stephanie Cutter said, essentially, that they liked President Obama's chances after the Republican convention. More
On Paul Ryan Sunday, it's the Democrats talking about his centerpiece plan
On Sunday morning, everyone was happy about Paul Ryan.
Conservatives cheered the "bold" pick they had been clamoring for, and Democrats were pleased to see Mitt Romney add a "right wing ideologue" to the ticket. More
Axelrod and co. tell Romney to 'quit whining,' and Kristol and co. tell him to release his taxes
As their personal assault on Mitt Romney entered a second week, Democrats had a new message for the Republican nominee. More
Walker and Daniels urge Romney to go beyond an Obama referendum
On Sunday morning, with President Obama mired in one of the worst weeks of his re-election campaign, two Republican governors cautioned Mitt Romney against trying to run his campaign as a referendum on the president. More
(1)David Axelrod says Bain ad was 'meant to begin a discussion,' and maybe it worked
On a conference call with reporters this afternoon to unveil a new ad attacking Mitt Romney's record as governor, Obama senior strategist David Axelrod defended the campaign's previous ads attacking Bain Capital, on tactical grounds, as a modest investment that succeeded in starting a big discussion. More
(1)Messina to Romney: You're no John McCain
President Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, emailed a statement this morning reacting to the New York Times report that the conservative activist (and owner of DNAInfo) Joe Ricketts is considering an aggressive assault on the president's character, including incendiary clips of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright that John McCain reportedly declined to employ during the 2008 campaign. More
Axelrod says Biden was just boiling down the president's position on gay marriage
On a conference call this morning, David Axelrod said Vice President Joe Biden's remarks yesterday about same-sex marriage are "entirely consistent" with President Obama's position on the issue.
Biden made headlines on Meet the Press by issuing a strong endorsement of same-sex marriage that seemed to go beyond the president's ongoing evolution on the issue. More
Covering bases: Biden moves to same-sex marriage, as Schumer and Axelrod assess enthusiasm
Vice President Joe Biden strayed a little from the official administration position on gay marriage on Sunday morning.
"I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women, and heterosexual men and women marrying another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties," he said on Meet the Press. More
Maloney turns the Secret Service affair into a women's issue; King turns it into a joke about Newt Gingrich
With the Secret Service scandal in Colombia consuming much of the conversation on Sunday morning, Representative Peter King said he continues to have "full confidence" in Secret Service director Mark Sullivan. More
Now raising money for Obama on Long Island: David Axelrod
President Obama's top campaign adviser, David Axelrod, will be on Long Island next month for a fund-raiser in Lloyd Harbor.
The April 9 event is being hosted by Jon Cooper, who was until recently the majority leader of the Suffolk County legislature before leaving office because of term limits. More
