Posted on 05/15/2009 11:48:34 PM PDT by neverdem
White House senior adviser David Axelrod agreed to take the hot seat Thursday night when he answered questions for the game “Not My Job” at a live taping of NPR’s " Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me!"
Styled after the old-fashioned radio quiz shows, "Wait Wait" challenges contestants with trivia games based on current news stories and is hosted by playwright Peter Sagal and newscaster Carl Kasell.
A former journalist known for his snappy sound bites, Axelrod kept up with jokes on everything from the president’s “perfection” (“The only suggestion he rejected was when I asked him to put on a mole”) to the recent flap over Carrie Prejean’s beauty pageant comments.
When Axelrod was asked if he had weighed in on the Obama family’s dog choice, "the Rasputin in this kingdom" (as Sagal jokingly refered to him) sassed back, “I was only called in for the final three, and one was Miss California.”
Sagal also asked Axelrod whether he's "an evil or a benevolent genius” Axelrod rejected a comparision with Karl Rove, criticizing George W. Bush's chief political adviser of “trying to run the Republican Party [from] out of the White House.” He said he's not an idealogue but an idealist whose goal is to help communicate whatever message the president decides is best.
When pressed further, Axelrod insisted that his influence is minimal and quipped that his primary means of giving the president his opinion is by “passing a note to the person on the left.”
The show poked fun at Obama camp idealism and tried to stump Axelrod with a series of trivia questions related to obscure failed Utopias. Throwing fuel on the fire, Axelrod earnestly stated that, despite hurdles in the campaign, the Obama administration “was meant to be." Sagal immediately responded: "He suffered for our sake.”
Other panelists included Mo Rocca from CBS, the Washington Post’s Roxanne Roberts and comedien Paula Poundstone. The edited program will air Saturday at 11 a.m. on WAMU 88.5 FM.
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