David Axelrod, the Man With Obama's Game Plan, Is Also the Candidate's No. 1 Fan

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: The Player at Bat
David Axelrod, the Man With Obama's Game Plan, Is Also the Candidate's No. 1 Fan
By Robert G. Kaiser
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008; C01

CHICAGO

....Axelrod, 53, is the preeminent political consultant in Chicago, and has operated successfully all over the country. He has helped Deval Patrick become governor of Massachusetts, Hillary Clinton become a senator from New York, and Anthony Williams become mayor of Washington, among many others. Over the past 16 months he has become a national figure as chief strategist for Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign, a job that regularly puts him on television -- "Meet the Press" two Sundays ago and "Face the Nation" last Sunday, and all over cable news last week. On television he is a cool, articulate spokesman for his candidate, a well-spoken salesman with a product to sell. But his friends realize that behind his mild-mannered exterior lurks the intense Axelrod they all know -- the fan.

Politics and sports are close cousins, and politics can provide an outlet for the fan's instincts. Axelrod roots for politicians with the intensity fans usually save for their teams. "He's really sort of an innocent," says Sam Smith, a retired Chicago Tribune sportswriter and one of Axelrod's closest friends. His pal is regularly infatuated with the candidates he works for as a consultant, Smith says: "He believes the best of the people in politics" -- at least for a time.

"He loves his candidates when he starts," Smith explains, but the love often fades; "he's usually let down when he finishes (a campaign)."

Told of Smith's remark, Axelrod demurs, denying that his candidates regularly disappoint him. "That's not really true," he says during a recent conversation in Obama headquarters here. "I've had my disappointments for sure, but I've been really, really lucky. Part of what has allowed me to practice the politics I like is that I've hooked up with some really outstanding people."

He considers Obama the most outstanding of them all. Axelrod has decided that this first-term senator, just 46 years old, is something extraordinary, someone to compare to his earliest political idol, Robert F. Kennedy. "This time he found a candidate who isn't letting him down," Smith says. "Obama is the one different guy."...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/01/AR2008050103509_pf.html

[madrchsod]

1. bill clinton wanted to hire him but david turned him down

to work in illinois. hillary had david make videos for her senate campaign. david was edwards right hand man in 2004...

david,dick durbin,and the late senator from illinois paul simon all were instrumental in barack`s political journey here in illinois and now the nation.