Just in case you were wondering, those attacks that David Axelrod and Obama surrogates have been on television defending against all week? Yeah, those are totally not working, guys. In fact, you know what? They help the Obama campaign. Got it? Because they totally do. And they were totally concerned that it would be impactful at first, but you know what? They’re not concerned anymore. In fact, they’re so not concerned that they’ve turned all the televisions in their campaign offices to the cooking channel. And, like, old episodes of Pawn Stars.
Senior campaign adviser David Axelrod claimed on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that the pushback is more an effort to extend the president’s messaging than it is an attempt to minimize damage.
Both the RNC and the Romney campaign have asserted that the Obama camp is in panic mode because the attacks have hit a soft spot – they say the president’s comment about business owners needing public help to build their companies reflects President Obama’s deeply held belief that government is the solution.
Obama personally appeared in a response ad released Tuesday pushing back against the attacks, an unusual move, and the DNC is planning a large-scale coordinated response.
The campaign’s efforts at countering the attack seem to demonstrate an attitude contrary to Axelrod’s. Even though Obama said the “you didn’t build that” line on July 15, he released his response to the immediate attacks two weeks after the incident. And even then, it seems Axelrod isn’t exercising a huge measure of control over his candidate, who at a Seattle fundraiser, today, got all annoyed and touchy when he was forced to mention and counter the “you didn’t build that” attacks. He’s “losing his patience,” which should be interesting to say the least. Ten bucks says the next $5,000-a-plate fundraiser proceeds go to fixing a hole in one of those temporary walls on Air Force One.
