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Occupy Chicago protestors interrupted Mayor Rahm Emanuel for about three minutes Thursday as the mayor shared a stage with pundits at the inauguration of former White House advisor David Axelrod’s Institute of Politics at the University of Chicago. “He has fired 363 library employees and cut numerous CTA routes,” protestors shouted. “Do I take it that your election was not unanimous?” Republican pundit Alex Castellanos teased Emanuel. Emanuel smiled and conceded that his election as mayor was not unanimous

Today in New York, Obama strategist David Axelrod took questions from reporters at a Bloomberg forum. NR was there. Right up front, Axelrod noted the “juxtaposition of the president’s speech yesterday with the one Mitt Romney made today.” He argued that the president’s detailed speech in Kansas, derided by many conservatives, “was a very thorough explication of his views on what the great challenges facing this country [and] his view on the economic challenges facing the country.” He then attacked Romney’s speech, which presented the concept of an “entitlement nation,” as “deeply offensive to many middle class Americans.” He argued...

The New York Times reports an interesting dispatch from President Obama's re-election campaign: Newt Gingrich is a genuine threat that they plan to take seriously. “Look, for the longest time, Gingrich was not really a factor in this race, he was left for dead at the checkout counter at Tiffany’s,” said David Axelrod, a chief adviser to the president’s re-election bid. “Now he is resurgent and he could be the nominee.” According to the Times, the campaign plans to portray Gingrich as "a symbol of the past" and the “godfather of gridlock.”

In an interview with Wolf Blitzer, Herman Cain said a new accuser would be coming forward to accuse him of having a 13-year affair with him. No links yet as the story is currently breaking and details are still being released. Apparentally a Georgia TV station has the exclusive.

David Axelrod's Pattern of Sexual Behavior Ann Coulter wrote an illuminating column last week about David Axelrod, President Obama's top political advisor. His specialty is planting sexual scandals in the media about the President's opponents. [quote] [A]s extensively detailed in my book Guilty: Liberal 'Victims' and Their Assault on America, the only reason Obama became a U.S. senator -- allowing him to run for president -- is that David Axelrod pulled sealed divorce records out of a hat, first, against Obama's Democratic primary opponent, and then against Obama's Republican opponent. [end quote] Noman read "Guilty," and encourages you to do...

Herman Cain has spent his life living and working all over the country -- Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, D.C. -- but never in Chicago. So it's curious that all the sexual harassment allegations against Cain emanate from Chicago: home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod. Suspicions had already fallen on Sheila O'Grady, who is close with David Axelrod and went straight from being former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff to president of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), as being the person who dug up Herman Cain's personnel records from the National Restaurant...

Herman Cain has spent his life living and working all over the country -- Indiana, Georgia, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Washington, D.C. -- but never in Chicago. So it's curious that all the sexual harassment allegations against Cain emanate from Chicago: home of the Daley machine and Obama consigliere David Axelrod​. Suspicions had already fallen on Sheila O'Grady, who is close with David Axelrod and went straight from being former Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley's chief of staff to president of the Illinois Restaurant Association (IRA), as being the person who dug up Herman Cain's personnel records from the National Restaurant...

LOS ANGELES - Dealing a blow to the U.S. Senate candidacy of Republican Jack Ryan, a California judge ruled that several sealed divorce records likely to embarrass the candidate and his ex-wife should be opened to the public. Ruling on a request brought by attorneys for the Tribune and WLS-TV, Superior Court Judge Robert Schnider acknowledged that the resulting publicity from the disclosure would be harmful to the couple's son, a key argument Ryan had raised in seeking to keep the documents from public view. But Schnider said he had weighed the public interest of disclosure against the private interests...

Video at link

Ugh. I know the Chicago Way has a way of getting into every political story. But let’s not get off the rails here. Lots of people on Twitter are claiming a “connection� between Chicago resident/Herman Cain accuser Sharon Bialek and Obama guru David Axelrod.This is the source of the confusion: Cook County records showing a court case involving Bialek and a plaintiff represented by a “David Axelrod� of Highland Park, IL. He is a completely different Axelrod who practices law.Here’s his law firm’s group photo:This is the Obama Axelrod:That Axelrod is not connected to Bialek. (Not yet, anyway.)Capiche?***For what it’s...

David Axlerod took a swing at Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain Monday, saying that he thought Cain’s 9-9-9 proposal would hurt the poor and the middle class. The senior Obama adviser called Cain an “intruiging personality” on “Morning Joe,” but took a shot at the Republican candidate’s tax proposal, saying, “I think his plan deserves scrunity … I don’t think it’s good for most Americans.” “I think you’ve got to add the 9-9-9 up, get to 27 percent, and that’s probably what poor and middle-class people will end up paying once the thing is implemented,” Axlerod said. Despite the attention...

With a midnight deadline looming, the Energy Department has approved three more loan guarantees for solar energy totaling about $3.5 billion. Energy Secretary Steven Chu says the department has completed a $1.5 billion loan guarantee to Arizona-based First Solar Inc. for a 550-megawatt solar farm on federal land in Southern California and $646 million to Exelon Corp. for a 230-megawatt solar plant near Los Angeles. A third project, worth $1.4 billion, will support installation of about 750 solar rooftop panels in 28 states. snip

Henry Wallace’s Progressive Party of the 1940s was nothing but a tool the Communist Party USA – and by extension, the Soviet Union. Today’s Democratic Party is also heavily infiltrated by the now pro Chinese Communist Party USA and their almost as equally extreme comrades from Democratic Socialists of America. Here’s an interesting picture from the 1940s. Henry Wallace chatting with Chicago journalist and Progressive Party supporter Vernon Jarrett. It turns out that around this time Vernon Jarrett was a leader of the Chicago chapter of American Youth for Democracy – the youth wing of the Communist Party. Chicago communist...

During his interview with Obama 2012 campaign strategist David Axelrod, "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer played a clip of President Obama talking with NBC's Matt Lauer a few weeks after he took office. Here's what a newly inaugurated President Obama said: PRESIDENT OBAMA: that's exactly right. And — and, you know, a year from now I think people — are gonna see that — we're starting to make some progress. But there's still gonna be some pain out there. If I don't have this done in three years, then there's gonna be a one-term proposition. Schieffer, reminding Axelrod that...

Axelrod: This was a 'tea party downgrade' By Meghashyam Mali - 08/07/11 11:37 AM ET Top Obama strategist David Axelrod criticized Republicans over their handling of the debt-ceiling negotiations which he argued led to Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the nation’s credit rating Friday. This was a “tea party downgrade,” said Axelrod on CBS News’ Face the Nation. Axelrod said S&P’s decision was “largely a political analysis.” “And that's what we should focus on because what they were saying is they want to see the political system work. They want to see a sense of compromise. They want to...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top White House adviser is blaming the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on tea party Republicans, whom he says were unwilling to compromise on how to reduce the federal debt. The adviser to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, tells CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday .. ... .. also criticized GOP presidential candidates for not speaking up in favor of compromise.

A top Obama adviser blames tea party for downgrade WASHINGTON — Who's to blame for the U.S. debt-ceiling mess? Politicians and political advisers took to the airwaves Sunday to point fingers, mostly at each other. David Axelrod, a top political adviser to President Barack Obama, blames the downgrade of the U.S. credit rating on tea party Republicans for being unwilling to compromise on how to reduce the federal debt. The Obama campaign strategist tells CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday that the decision by the Standard & Poor's credit agency to downgrade the U.S. from AAA to AA+ for the...

MoveOn.org drives new liberal catch phrase: ‘Tea party downgrade’ Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller 43 mins ago The left-wing activist group MoveOn.org picked up the new liberal slogan bashing conservatives for Standard & Poor’s U.S. credit rating downgrade: “Tea Party downgrade.” President Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod and Massachusetts Democratic Sen. John Kerry both used the phrase on Sunday talk shows. In a Sunday afternoon email to supporters, MoveOn.org accused tea partiers of being responsible for the first-ever credit downgrade in U.S. history. “This ‘tea party downgrade’ is a shameful blow to our nation’s honor and risks throwing...

For some time now, Pres. Obama and his camp have taken malicious glee in praising the health care plan Mitt Romney put together as governor of Massachusetts. The Dems well know that their accolades amount to a millstone around Mitt's GOP primary neck. David Axelrod took the art form to another level on Morning Joe today. After some light-hearted banter on the subject, Axelrod went out of his way to solemnly state for the record that RomneyCare "quite seriously, really was a template" for ObamaCare. All this came much to the amusement of the Morning Joe crowd. View video and...

The next piece to fall into place will be the campaign operation. The Chicago-based reelection team will be under the direction of campaign manager Jim Messina, who recently stepped down as White House deputy chief of staff. David Axelrod, who has returned to Chicago after two years as senior adviser to the president, will again play the central role he did four years ago. In due course, the Obama campaign operation will be fully staffed and humming. At this point, it has studied the reelection campaigns of previous presidents. The campaign advisers understand their challenges and have ideas about how...

CNN’s chief national correspondent and anchor John King was in Chicago this afternoon to report on the mayoral race. King sat down at Manny's Cafeteria with David Axelrod, former senior adviser to President Obama, to discuss the mayoral race, Chicago politics and Wisconsin. The second part of the interview with David Axelrod will air tomorrow on John King, USA – 7pm ET. Transcript is after the jump. MANDATORY CREDIT: JOHN KING, USA HIGHLIGHT TRANSCRIPT THIS IS A RUSH FDCH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED. KING: Any doubt that your friend will...

BOSTON - Gov. Deval Patrick hopped on a plane to Chicago Friday evening for a meeting with President Barack Obama’s top political advisor David Axelrod, one the principal architects of the president’s 2008 election and a former advisor to Patrick’s first campaign for governor. The meeting between Patrick and Axelrod comes just days after the governor flew to Washington, D.C. to have dinner with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine, the former governor of Virginia and a classmate of Patrick’s at Harvard Law School. Over salad, salmon and calamari on Tuesday night, Patrick and Kaine discussed the president’s re-election campaign...

USA Today is headline and link only.Below is an excerpt of the transcript via Time of the interview David Axelrod did with CNN's John King last night that is the basis for the USA Today headline. KING: A man who served in the White House under George W. Bush, Michael Gerson, wrote an op-ed piece in "The Washington Post" today under the headline, "Obama the Snob." And he used a quote from the president at a Democratic fundraiser recently in Massachusetts, where the president said, "Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and fact and...

Has the White House been influenced by a convicted domestic terrorist for its attack on the Chamber of Commerce?The latest assault on the Chamber has been spear-headed by none other than the President himself and picked up by David Axelrod, MoveOn.org and all the usual Astro-Turfers who receive marching orders from the DNC. It’s become part of the standard talking points for cable-news pundits and their well-programmed guests and has been the new rallying cry for the left as they try their best to explain the imminent electoral disaster that looms on November 2nd. But one group was well ahead...

In an exchange with Jake Tapper of ABC News, Obama Thug David Axelrod refuses to answer why Obama AKA Soetoro AKA Soebarkah will not release his LONG-FORM birth certificate, "so he can put to rest the questions that have been raised." The interview was regarding the made-up U.S. Chamber of Commerce controversy that is making the rounds in the Leftist controlled media. In this interview Axelrod quotes and agrees with an unnamed person saying, “the only people who want to keep things secret are folks who have something to hide.” And this schmuck is Obama's Senior Adviser? Let me remind...

During the course of questioning about the Obama administration's attacks on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, ABC News White House Correspondent Jake Tapper brought up the issue of Barack Obama refusing to release his long form Hawaii birth certificate in an interview today with senior White House adviser David Axelrod.Axelrod said that Obama's birth certificate "has been available to people."When Tapper followed up by asking if the long form version (aka the original with more information than the shorter publicly released version) has been released, Axelrod ducked the question with this bizarre rejoinder, “the only people who want to keep...

BOB SCHIEFFER, CBS NEWS: But he [Obama] still smokes? DAVID AXELROD: Yeah, but the President is doing a pretty good job on that [quitting].

David Axelrod, the White House's Senior Adviser, is ratcheting up the Democrats' attack on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, calling special interest spending "a threat to our democracy." Axelrod is accusing the Chamber of Commerce of collecting millions of dollars from secret donors - including some foreign sources - to influence the midterm elections in favor of the Republicans, and refusing to disclose their sources. "This issue of this special interest spending is very important," Axelrod said on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "It's never happened before that organizations are spending this kind of money. And the American people need...

Bob Woodward's searing critique of the Democrats' war strategy comes as key advisers are leaving and voters lose patience with Barack Obama's promise to deliver 'hope and change'. Alex Spillius reports on an increasingly isolated President. When Barack Obama took office 20 months ago – and what a long 20 months it seems – there was a lot of talk about the great "Team of Rivals" he was appointing around him. Parallels were drawn with the cabinet of substantial talents and big personalities assembled by Abraham Lincoln to rebuild the nation after the civil war. Now, in a new book,...

It smells like Tea Party victory. Ed Schultz has gotten a whiff, and he's panicking . . . On his MSNBC show this evening, sensing an impending Republican landslide inspired by the Tea Party tempest, Ed called for David Axelrod, Pres. Obama's chief political adviser, to be thrown overboard for being too "soft." Schultz suggested axing the Axe and replacing him with James Carville and Paul Begala. It was Joe Biden's attempt to rouse the base on Rachel Maddow's show last night that set Ed off . . . View video here.

Politics: The end of the Daley mayoral dynasty in Chicago may set the stage for a man who never wants to waste a good crisis to take the reins. Will the Windy City be socialism's next victim? Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's surprise announcement that he will not seek a seventh term in 2011 clears the way for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to fulfill a personal ambition and at the same time escape the collapsing presidency of Barack Obama. The Daleys, Richard M. and Richard J., with brief interruptions from an occasional Harold Washington or Jane Byrne,...

Lyndon Johnson is famous for saying that if he had lost the favorable opinion of liberal former CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite that he had lost that of most of America. President Barack Obama may be at a similar juncture now. With his poll numbers continuing a downward trend in light of the Gulf oil leak, his unpopular health care bill, and deficit spending, liberal comedian Jon Stewart asked a question Monday that is now beginning to emerge even in the minds of stalwart Democrats: Is government capable of doing anything large and expansive ? As chronicled by Noel Sheppard...

It’s probably safe to say that South Carolina Senate Dem primary winner Alvin Greene will not be hearing from anonymous senior administration officials out to offer him a cushy job in exchange for him dropping out of the race. Instead, I imagine the White House (and many others) are hoping the press will do their dirty work and solve the strange mystery of how Greene — a totally unfunded, unknown — won the SC primary last week. When asked this morning on Meet the Press whether he thought Greene was a “legitimate candidate” David Axelrod did not pull many punches....

While President Obama assures Americans that his White House is the “people’s house,” he covertly gives political advisors taxpayer-funded personal drivers traditionally reserved for cabinet members and national security officials. Obama and Jarrett, who was his “Olympic Czar,” are so tight that he refers to her as a “sibling.” Before joining the administration Jarrett was involved in a series of real estate scandals, including several housing projects operated by convicted felon and Obama fundraiser/friend Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Besides getting a personal military driver to chauffer her around town and to and from work, Jarrett also gets Secret Service protection, which...

Reuters: President Barack Obama did not give Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the cold shoulder when they met in the White House last week, David Axelrod said.

David Axelrod tells the Huffington Post that health-care reform passed because Republicans downgraded to DEFCON 2 after Scott Brown's surprise victory in the Massachusetts Senate race: "Some of the steam went out of the opposition after that," Axelrod said. "I think that people felt like they had made a statement. Perhaps they felt like they had killed health care reform... They thought the fight was over. And that [the president] couldn't now succeed. I do believe that. And it is almost as if they had made the statement that they thought they had stopped the thing. And so it created...

It says a lot when Vice President Joe Biden comes across as the Obama administration's most skilled statesman. Last week during a visit to Israel, Mr. Biden was caught off-guard by an announcement that work would progress on 1,600 apartment units in Jerusalem's Ramat Shlomo neighborhood, a Jewish enclave in the northern part of the city claimed by Palestinians. This faux pas could have ended civilly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized for the bad timing of the announcement, and Mr. Biden reiterated the strength of the relationship between the two countries. Life should have gone on. Instead, Secretary of...

SNIP In a lengthy interview in his office on Wednesday, Mr. Axelrod was often defiant, saying he did not give a “flying” expletive “about what the peanut gallery thinks” and did not live for the approval “of the political community.” He denounced the “rampant lack of responsibility” of people in Washington who refuse to solve problems, and cited the difficulty of trying to communicate through what he calls “the dirty filter” of a city suffused with the “every day is Election Day sort of mentality.” SNIP Mr. Axelrod’s friends worry about the toll of his job — citing his diet...

More video evidence that the Democrats will try to ram through health care reform with a 51 vote simple majority, David Axelrod on CNN says the American people want this vote to be held...(Video)

Here is video of Obama Senior Adviser David Axelrod saying on Meet the Press today that he believes it was "totally appropriate" for President Obama to criticize the Supreme Court during his State of the Union Address, with them sitting right in front of them. Axelrod made the disingenuous argument that Obama made in his address that the recent Supreme Court ruling giving U.S. Corporations free speech rights would allow "foreign corporations" to influence U.S. elections. He said that even though the decision explicitly does not allow that to take place. . . . (VIDEO)

David Axelrod says the President will seek repeal of "don't ask, don't tell."

Obama senior aide David Axelrod once again blamed Bush for the current voter anger from the economic "disaster" apparently left behind by Bush. Let me repeat that again, and let's see if it sounds less asinine this time around. Obama senior aide David Axelrodonce again blamed Bush for the current vot...nope, I can't even complete repeating it, and it already sounds asinine as heck! Axelrod's—and, to be sure, many top Obama officials's—obsession with blaming Bush begs a few, choice questions. Is Axelrod on something? Is Axelrod delirious? Is Axelrod merely joking around? Or, as I think, is he really out...

Ever since the grass roots tea parties began, the progressives have tried to minimize them. They continue to call them, Tea Baggers, Nazis, Right Wing fringe, and of course Astroturf. The Astroturf charge is the most ironic as David Axelrod the President's Political adviser was once labeled by Business Week as The master of "Astroturfing", which is what PR industry insiders call the practice of "manufacturing grassroots support."According to Business Week, one of Axelrod's Astroturfing campaigns stealthily spent $15 million convincing Illinois taxpayers that their power would be shut off if they didn't approve an increase in their electric bills....

Richard Nixon had advertising executive H.R. Haldeman; Ronald Reagan had image master Mike Deaver; Barack Obama has public relations guru David Axelrod.All three men understood the power of visuals in communicating the strengths of the presidents they served on the campaign trail and in the office of the presidency. I don’t know where David Axelrod has been since President Obama began his ten-day Christmas vacation in Hawaii, but it is safe to say he is goofing off as much as his boss.(The Oval Office, December 29, 2009. Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)(AP Photo by Chris Carlson, December 31,...

Senior White House Adviser David Axelrod said today that supporters of health care reform are "right on the one-yard line" to push through passage of the legislation now that the Senate Democratic leadership says it has the 60 votes necessary to pass their version this week. Axelrod offered that optimistic prediction, when asked on CNN's State of the Union to describe progress with a football analogy, even though the Senate bill still would have to be reconciled with House legislation that has provisions that didn't pass muster in the upper chamber, and in the face of numerous public opinion polls...

Thuggery for me, not against me. Ed Schultz has joined Howard Dean and others who believe the Democrats should kill this health care bill unless it contains a "public option." He had a brief, relatively tepid exchange yesterday morning with David Axelrod on Morning Joe and decided he was being persecuted. Ed opened his show last night saying: The White House -- ooh, are they a little touchy as of late? Desperate to sell what they are calling health care reform -- I don't buy it. They are trying to vilify now anyone who opposes it. That's what's happening...

In a stunning reversal of fortune for President Barack Obama, top progressives are attacking the health-reform plan moving through the Senate as “hollow,” “unsupportable” and a sellout to corporate interests. Republicans, after plotting for months to sink the signature legislation of Obama’s first year, suddenly think that Democrats might wind up doing it for them. Most dangerously for White House chances of assembling 60 Senate votes, former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean launched a third day of attacks on the emerging bill, arguing in a Washington Post op-ed that it meets none of his benchmarks for “real reform.” “[A]s it stands,...

Axelrod: Left 'insane' to sink bill By: Mike Allen December 17, 2009 09:18 AM EST Trying to stave off a sudden fusillade from the left, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said Thursday that Howard Dean's criticisms of health-care reform are "predicated on a bunch of erroneous conclusions" and that for progressives to torpedo the legislation "would be a tragic, tragic outcome." “To defeat a bill that will bend the curve on this inexorable rise in health-care costs is insane,” Axelrod said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” "I don’t think that you want this moment to pass. It will not come...

Seventy-one percent (71%) of voters nationwide say they’re at least somewhat angry about the current policies of the federal government. That figure includes 46% who are Very Angry. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that only 27% are not angry about the government's policies, including 10% who are Not at All Angry........ The data suggests that the level of anger is growing. The 71% who are angry at federal government policies today is up five percentage points since September. Even more stunning, the 46% who are Very Angry is up 10 percentage points from September.

Trying to counter perceptions that the trip failed to bring about solid results, advisor David Axelrod says, 'Things don't change overnight.' Reporting from Seoul - Even before President Obama boarded his home-bound flight for Washington, capping a grueling weeklong Asian tour, the White House was scrambling to combat perceptions that the trip failed to produce concrete results. Compared to Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, the U.S. is putting its alliances "on a firmer footing" and has "reasserted our leadership in the region," the White House said in a statement released to reporters hours before the president's flight home.