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The State Department has released a transcript of a briefing that two high-ranking department officials gave to a number of reporters via conference call on October 9 (Tuesday). I am not certain about this, but I believe the transcript was only made public today. You should read it in its entirety; it is the most detailed description I have seen of the events in Benghazi on September 11. While this is by no means clear, it appears that the State Department may have released the transcript as part of the escalating conflict between Barack Obama and Joe Biden and the...

In my estimation, last night’s debate was a draw. Both men did what they needed to do for the debate, but neither had enough of a breakout performance to make much of a difference in the race. I’d expect to see very little impact to the Mitt-mentum that developed after the first debate, for reasons which I’ll address in a moment.That wasn’t the conclusion reached by Frank Luntz’ focus group of former Barack Obama voters, and now undecideds, in Nevada. That panel overwhelmingly chose Mitt Romney as the winner, with observations about Romney’s presidential mien and Obama’s defensiveness and lack...

On CNN's "State of the Union" on September 30, Candy Crowley insisted David Axelrod, President Barack Obama's chief strategist, was wrong when Axelrod tried to claim President Barack Obama called the Benghazi attack "an act of terror" on the day after. "First, they said it was not planned, it was part of this tape," Crowley said when Axelrod tried to spin her. This was Crowley the journalist, unlike the pro-Obama advocate who moderated Tuesday's debate between Obama and Mitt Romney and interjected herself into an argument between Obama and Romney on the exact same issue -- and took Obama's side....

As Eliana Johnson points out over at NRO, this morning, David Axelrod continued to throw Hillary Clinton and the State Department under the bus.......So expect more details damaging to Obama and Biden slowly to trickle out.

WASHINGTON — Early in the Obama administration, a lobbyist for the Illinois-based energy producer Exelon Corporation proudly called it “the president’s utility.” And it was not just because it delivers power to Barack Obama’s Hyde Park neighborhood in Chicago. ..... David Axelrod, Mr. Obama’s longtime political strategist, once worked as an Exelon consultant, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chicago mayor and Mr. Obama’s former chief of staff, helped create the company through a corporate merger in 2000 while working as an investment banker. With energy an increasingly pivotal issue for the Obama White House, a review of Exelon’s relationship with the...

WASHINGTON -- It has been a very rough patch for Our President, and I do believe it is going to get rougher still. Do not be surprised, as the month goes on and August runs into September, that his campaign budget becomes tighter. President Barack Obama is spending more money than he is raising. It will get worse. A president who mismanages the federal budget the way Obama does cannot be expected to manage his campaign budget much better. Lavish spending, it turns out, is a way of life for the community organizer who became our 44th president. Lavish spending...

In a swipe at the GOP presidential ticket, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on Tuesday defended President Barack Obama’s handling of Medicare. “The president … took away subsidies, unwarranted subsidies, to insurance companies, and he used that money to help lengthen the life of Medicare by nearly a decade,” Axelrod said on CNN’s Starting Point, referencing a provision of the new health care law. “So when Gov. Romney says he doesn’t support that, obviously … that’s problematical.” …

Chris Wallace, "FOX News Sunday" host: Didn't this White House badly misjudge this recovery? I remember in 2010, two summers ago, you and Vice President Biden were running around talking about 'Recovery Summer.' That was the summer of 2010 and the fact is the White House said if you got the stimulus, the $800 billion that unemployment would stay under 8%. In fact, with the stimulus, unemployment has stayed over 8% for the last 42 months. That's three and a half years. David Axelrod: Chris, first of all, I wasn't running around saying anything other than that we were going...

Based on the most embarrassing moments and inexcusable scandals of the Obama Administration, these two "Top Ten Democrat Lists" should be pretty accurate. Take a look at them and express your opinions of accuracy. There is likely a few more that can be added to the lists,so please feel free to add if you feel some Democrats are missing. TOP TEN WORLDS DUMBEST DEMOCRATS: 1)Debbie Wasserman, 2)Maxine Waters, 3)Nancy Pelosi, 4)Elizabeth Warren, 5)Sheila Jackson, 6)Hank Johnson, 7)Chuck Schumer, 8)Barney Frank, 9)Frederica Wilson, 10)Dick Durbin Top Ten Most Hated Democrats: 1)Eric Holder, 2)Van Jones, 3)David Axelrod, 4)O'Bozo, 5)Harry Reid, 6)Baba Boxer,...

War in the White House: attorney general Eric Holder and top Obama adviser David Axelrod 'had to be separated' Eric Holder, Barack Obama's attorney general and David Axelrod, his top political adviser had to be separated after squaring up during a furious row over attempts to impose White House operatives in the justice department. By Jon Swaine, Washington 6:22PM BST 03 Jun 2012 Eric Holder, who heads Mr Obama's justice department, is said to have become "incensed" after being accused by David Axelrod of complaining publicly about political interference in his office. "That's bull****," Mr Holder said in a confrontation...

The communications director of President Obama’s reelection campaign today denied a report in the New York Times that he had sat in on weekly White House meetings on terrorism. On Tuesday the paper said that after the failed 2009 Christmas Day “underwear bombing,” David Axelrod started attending the discussions with Obama and top national security advisers. The article reads: ”David Axelrod, the president’s closest political adviser, began showing up at the ‘Terror Tuesday’ meetings, his unspeaking presence a visible reminder of what everyone understood: a successful attack would overwhelm the president’s other aspirations and achievements.”

it intends to fight the guerilla warfare of a presidential campaign with a new aggressiveness and combativeness. The first signal came in Boston, where top Obama adviser David Axelrod organized an anti-Romney event on the steps of the Massachusetts state house. The event, which Team Obama wanted to keep under wraps until shortly before it happened, was to feature remarks from Axelrod and Democratic state officeholders who would attack Romney's record as governor from 2003 to 2007. But it didn't work out as planned. First, word of the event leaked last night, and the Romney campaign quickly scheduled an event...

The leader of the government regularly sits down with his senior generals and spies and advisers and reviews a list of the people they want him to authorize their agents to kill. They do this every Tuesday morning when the leader is in town. The leader once condemned any practice even close to this, but now relishes the killing because he has convinced himself that it is a sane and sterile way to keep his country safe and himself in power. The leader, who is running for re-election, even invited his campaign manager to join the group that decides whom...

David Axelrod privately calls Barack Obama “Black Jesus,” according to Edward Klein’s fantastic new book, The Amateur (p. 59). “[Barack Obama] is the living, breathing apotheosis of the American melting pot,” Klein quotes Axelrod as saying. Axelrod, as we know, isn’t alone. According to Klein, Micah Tillman, lecturer in philosophy at the Catholic University of America, called Obama “the Platonic philosopher king we’ve been looking for the past 2,400 years.” And no less an authority than Oprah has called him “The One.”

Both David Axelrod and Jim Messina put out the bait and unfortunately Mitt Romney took it. Joe Ricketts, formerly of TD Ameritrade and whose family owns the Chicago Cubs, proposed putting together a series of Super PAC ads highlighting President Obama's relationship with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Both Axelrod and Messina said that Romney should take a page out of John McCain's book and not focus on Wright. Well, of course, Axelrod and Messina would like that because, gee, McCain lost to Obama. Romney responded it would be "the wrong course for a PAC or a campaign." [Snip] What Romney...

May 16, 2012 Obamacare's Patient-Dumping, Privacy-Meddling Scheme Michelle Malkin The stench of Chicago cronyism over the White House just got fouler. Inhale this: A shadowy $10 billion Obamacare agency with zero oversight just awarded first lady Michelle Obama's pet patient-dumping scheme at the University of Chicago Medical Center a $5.9 million taxpayer-funded grant. It will enable Mrs. Obama's cronies to build a government-sponsored electronic medical record-sharing system. The Chicago program, known as the Urban Health Initiative, is run by one of President Obama's closest golfing buddies, scandal magnet Eric Whitaker, who has been entangled with Illinois corruption celebrities Rod Blagojevich...

The Department of Health and Human Services last week announced it had awarded a $5.9 million grant to a University of Chicago Medical Center program tied to Michelle Obama and run by Eric Whitaker, one of President Obama’s closest friends. The Urban Health Initiative, which received the award, was originally based on a smaller program launched during the last decade by Michelle Obama, who was an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center before she departed to become first lady. The UHI is headed up by Obama basketball and golf buddy Whitaker, who has known the president since Obama’s...

The theater of the absurd that is our presidential election keeps chugging along with all the vigor our economy doesn’t. One can’t blame Democrats for attempting distraction upon distraction, given the alternative of talking about President Obama’s record. After all, if it is indeed about the economy, stupid, the only votes there for Democrats are mindless drones who don’t care that nary an economic indicator has improved since Barack Obama took office $5 trillion in new debt ago. Those of us with eyes open and an IQ above that of our shoe size can’t help but notice. The spin of...

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...