Washington — David Axelrod, President Obama’s senior adviser, says that he is “eager” for the November midterms. Many Democrats, he predicts, “will win in places you didn’t expect.” The midterms, he adds, will be “idiosyncratic.”
Axelrod, speaking in a Google-sponsored interview with Politico’s Mike Allen at the Newseum, says Republicans, with their America Speaking Out project that led to the Pledge, “just didn’t listen.” He also dismisses the GOP brand, calling it “not strong at all.” Many conservatives, he notes, consider the Pledge to be “pablum” and “sloganeering.”
Axelrod also calls the GOP’s Pledge to America “retrograde,” and says he “gets concerned” when he hears Sen. Jim DeMint (R., S.C.) talking about gridlock as a legislative goal in the next Senate.
On the topic of the tea parties, Axelrod cites The New Yorker’s story on Koch Industries “secretly funding” opposition to President Obama, and predicts a “big struggle” in GOP in 2012 over the tea party vote.
Riffing on the media, Axelrod worries about the “polarized” viewing habits of Americans. Fox News, he says, has “consolidated” a base of conservative viewers. Democrats, he claims, are “more diffuse” in their viewing habits.
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