by Paul West
President Barack Obama's top political advisor, David Axelrod, said today that if the White House had been asked earlier, more could have been done for embattled Democratic Senate candidate Martha Coakley in Massachusetts.
Axelrod, in a question and answer session with reporters, said it was too soon for "post-mortems" on the special election to fill the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's seat. And for the record, he said that he still expected Coakley to win.
But it didn't take much reading between the lines to see that the president and his team are preparing to back-pedal as swiftly as humanly possible to distance Obama from a disastrous result tonight.
The Obama strategist volunteered praise for the Massachusetts Senate campaign run by the Republican, Scott Brown, and seemed to find nothing good to point to in the Democratic effort. He said he didn't want to "delve deeply into post-mortems on the day people are voting."
Axelrod appeared to reject the criticism that he and his team had been taken by surprise and should have done more to head off a Democratic collapse. He said it was "not exactly a revelation to us" that voters are angry and anxious after a year in which millions of Americans have lost their jobs and millions more see no evidence in their lives that the economy is recovering.
Axelrod also said that there were "local issues at play" in Massachusetts and that the Republican had run "a very clever campaign."
"As a practitioner in politics, my hat's off to him," Axelrod said.
See the rest of Paul West's report on Axelrod and the Massachusetts race at the Baltimore Sun and here in the Swamp.
He was asked whether Obama should have done more than make an eleventh-hour effort to head off a defeat that would be calamatous for his agenda.
"The White House did everything we were asked to do," he said. "I think if we had been asked earlier, we would have responded earlier."
Axelrod sought to cast the events of the day in the context of the president's first year in office, which ends at noon Wednesday.
A Democratic defeat in Massachusetts would imperil, if not outright destroy, the health care overhaul that has consumed Obama and Congress for most of the past year.
It would also become a pivot point for Obama's presidency, a calamity at the ballot box that would force him to shift his approach to governing. His rhetoric and efforts to forge bipartisanship, baldly rejected by Republicans, would have to be redoubled, at the very least. Unless Republicans reach out in response--which seems unlikely--the country faces a year of stalemate in Washington leading up to the November elections.
Meantime, liberal Democrats, who invested hope and enthusiasm in Obama, would have to dramatically recalibrate their expectations and deal with the fact that any realistic chance of advancing their issues in the foreseeable future have been dealt a decisive blow.
Axelrod denied a published report in Politico that Obama would respond combatively to a Republican victory.
"It didn't refelect any thinking that I know of," he said.
But the White House strategist outlined an election-year blueprint for Obama which suggested that Massachusetts is the beginning of a new, more populist-themed approach to governing, as many analysts have said.
The president plans to hit the road domestically more often than he did in 2009, when much of his attention was focused abroad.
A visit to Ohio this week marks the start of a more frequent travel schedule, including extended road trips, presumably to key states in the midterm voting.
"We're going to be doing a lot of this," Axelrod said of this week's Midwest trip. "This is just the first."
Axelrod said he wasn't "Pollyanna-ish" about the political situation-- a "tough environment for incumbents generally" and for the Democratic Party.
Ultimately, he said, voters will have to "make a judgment" about which party and its candidates offer "the best possibility for progress for them and their families" and "is fighting for the middle class." And which party is beholden to"powerful interests"--like the insurance companies and big banks--and protecting "the status quo."
Comments
King Obama is not only being "baldly rejected by Republicans," but also an exploding number of independents and some Democrats. Look at the polls, Swampies. Americans are waking up to the fact that Obama is a con man. Nothing more.
Posted by: LLTim | January 19, 2010 1:29 PM
Look, Obama road the wave of anti-Bush sentiment and that's about all that can be said about that! He made promise after lieing promise to get the votes needed to deliver us into a National catastrophy of his creation and nobody elses.
Now that the honeymoon is over and the sheeple are knocking the glitter from their eyes and looking for a job, they can't see any of the promised change and hope to be fooled again.
President Obama's campaigning for this race was obviously a lose - lose situation and he and his brainy accomplises (Axelrod) tossed him out there for the pummeling he will deserve.
Memo to Axelrod - "it's a tough environment for lieing politicians", especially those who have done the exact opposite of what they promises on the campaign trail.
People may forget the first year of Obama blunders in three more years, IF our president actaully does anything GOOD for America. What this administration is doing at the moment cannot be ignored by the electorate nor can Congress save Obama, or this blathering woman, or themselves for that matter.
Posted by: springfield | January 19, 2010 1:55 PM
"if the White House had been asked...???" Axelrod is another example of the impending disaster of the Obama Administration. And now his "hat is off" to Scott Brown...what a fu--ing wuz! Obama and his band of morons and Chicago thugs, are a sad representation of what the American people expected after the disasterous 8 years of George W. Obama is a 90 pound weakling, a milque toast egomaniac who is more interested in his "image" that being a good President. 1 year into his Presidency, people are sooo tired of this man and his little goody 2-shoes way of doing things. Seems Obama sees the Presidency as about Obama and not about our country and the American people .
Posted by: Woody McBreairty | January 19, 2010 1:56 PM
"if the White House had been asked...???" Axelrod is another example of the impending disaster of the Obama Administration. And now his "hat is off" to Scott Brown...what a fu--ing wuz! Obama and his band of morons and Chicago thugs, are a sad representation of what the American people expected after the disasterous 8 years of George W. Obama is a 90 pound weakling, a milque toast egomaniac who is more interested in his "image" that being a good President. 1 year into his Presidency, people are sooo tired of this man and his little goody 2-shoes way of doing things. Seems Obama sees the Presidency as about Obama and not about our country and the American people .
Posted by: Woody McBreairty | January 19, 2010 1:56 PM
I don't even need to come here to know what the Right Wing Parrots are going to puke out on the Swamp comment board. Terry, Paulo, John D and Bruce simply repeat headlines from DrudgeReport. I almost feel sorry for people who can't think for themselves but then I'm reminded that these people have more respect for racists than communits (I despise Communism)
Posted by: sensible | January 19, 2010 1:56 PM
Democrats and their media allies continue to pretend that "GOP obstructionism" is preventing Obama and the lackluster Democratic Congress from accomplishing something/anything for the American people. But, of course, Republicans have lacked the votes over the past year to stop anything on their own. The Obama administration is ongoing smoke and mirrors show that is less and less entertaining to Americans with each passing day. Virgina, New Jersey and Massachusetts are only the beginning of the backlash against Obama's dishonesty, corruption and divisiveness.
Posted by: Kyle Roget | January 19, 2010 1:58 PM
I would stay away from Rahm in The White House today.
Posted by: Alcove-One | January 19, 2010 2:01 PM
"His rhetoric and efforts to forge bipartisanship, baldly rejected by Republicans, would have to be redoubled, at the very least."
What efforts to forge bi-partisanship?
Can't blame Republicans for rejecting non-existent efforts.
Oh, and redoubling nothing would still be nothing.
Posted by: styrgwillidar | January 19, 2010 2:08 PM
Maybe the anti-Obama trolls should have stayed in school a little longer. I haven't seen this many mis-spelled words since the tea party I wandered through last summer.
Posted by: tbone | January 19, 2010 2:32 PM
I don't even need to come here to know what the Right Wing Parrots are going to puke out on the Swamp comment board. Terry, Paulo, John D and Bruce simply repeat headlines from DrudgeReport. I almost feel sorry for people who can't think for themselves but then I'm reminded that these people have more respect for racists than communits (I despise Communism)
Posted by: sensible | January 19, 2010 1:56 PM
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Now, there's a commentor who has something to say? Oh, just rag on others and that is your opinion about this article?
Funny how, when someone starts their rant about how patently stupid others are, goes on to stupidity like it was their security blanket.
Oh yeah, call other racists and communists and say, to those who "can't think for themselves" you feel sorry? Where has we heard that line before?
Original poets and free thinkers to the south exit door please, you may stay right wehere you are sensible. ANother loon will be by to instruct you later.
Posted by: springfield | January 19, 2010 2:40 PM
HERE'S HOW WE VOTE "DEMOCRATIC" STYLE IN MASS. FRANKEN ANYONE?
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http://biggovernment.com/2010/01/19/why-is-this-woman-handing-out-absentee-ballots/
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Posted by: Bobby Mobbie | January 19, 2010 2:41 PM
The Obama adminstration and Democratic Congress has repeatedly given the American people the middle finger over the past year. Let's contiune to stand strong against Obama and get congress out of the hands of the insane Pelois and Reid in November. Thank you Massachusetts supporters of Brown. American everywhere are behind you.
Posted by: Mary | January 19, 2010 3:18 PM
Paul West wrote:"His rhetoric and efforts to forge bipartisanship, baldly rejected by Republicans, would have to be redoubled, at the very least."
You're kidding, right? This President, with his filibuster-proof majority in the Senate & a 59 to 41% advantage in the House, arrogantly announced to Republicans that he would brook no dissent, saying "I won. So I think on that one, I trump you."
This is the President who contemptuously dismissed Republicans with "I don't want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess."
The President made a VERY public spectacle of shutting all but three Republicans completely out of negotiations on health care since he DID NOT NEED ANY OF THEIR VOTES, and according to this author's carefully considered appraisal it was the Republicans who spurned Saint Barack's patiently conciliatory overtures?
Say what?
Barack Obama didn't need a damn single Republican to pass a damn single speck of legislation, and yet it's still somehow the Republicans' fault that he's had trouble doing a damn single thing to help the American people?
Only an American journalist would try to get away with a statement as manifestly ridiculous as that.
Posted by: leilani | January 19, 2010 3:21 PM
Maybe the anti-Obama trolls should have stayed in school a little longer. I haven't seen this many mis-spelled words since the tea party I wandered through last summer.
Posted by: tbone | January 19, 2010 2:32 PM
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So let me see if I, an uneducated troll, can understand what you're saying here. If I don't support Obama, then I must be a troll? And if I'm a good speller, I get to look down my nose at everyone else? Wow. You make quite a case for your side. I'll be switching parties post haste - not. So, you are bringing what to the party? Oh yeah, kool-aid.
Posted by: Rodulu | January 19, 2010 3:31 PM
Hey tbone,
The word is misspelled; not mis-spelled--you hypocritical moron.
Posted by: BMF | January 19, 2010 3:41 PM
Hey Tbone you know you didnt wander through a tea party you were hopin to get Teabagged like Coakley. better open wide Brown is getting ready to do the old dip dip diparoo Oh Yeah!!!
Posted by: Libtard | January 19, 2010 5:39 PM
Ol' Marsha Coakley will be laying right next to BO's grandmother - under the bus.
Axelrod is too stupid to see the trend - Virginia, New Jersey, and now Mass.
Mobbie,
Any sighhtings of the Radke brothers in Boston today?
Posted by: Terry | January 19, 2010 6:09 PM
the remnents of the middle class feel as though government is out of control and the citizen's role is to pay and keep paying.well guess what ? they're all tapped out.
the politicans screwed up any chance for healthcare reform because they are gutless crooks and deserve to be kicked out of office on their fannys.
The teabaggers are not wrong on everything;
Posted by: writerofwrongs | January 19, 2010 10:18 PM
Still Writing Wrong,
"the middle class feel as though government is out of control" - that is the correct diagnosis of the problem, but then your "solution" - "the politicans screwed up any chance for healthcare reform because they are gutless crooks" is way off base. The middle class doesn't want this expansion of gov't and neither does our constitution.
Posted by: Terry | January 19, 2010 11:00 PM
What a great blog! It is a pity that I can not find RRS address. If RRS offers a subscription service, I can easily follow your blog!
Posted by: coach suitcase | May 18, 2010 8:28 PM