David Axelrod Quotes
Our party is - we don't have the problems that the other party has. We're not divided. We don't have to worry about, you know, what people are saying on the side or about their affection for the president or - we don't have those problems and we don't have the reinvention convention.
Axelrod, David. Interview with Candy Crowley. State of the Union, CNN, 2 Sept. 2012.
Democratic Speaker of the Oklahoma House Jim Barker was so heavy-handed that his own party members combined to unseat him:
This principle has been promoted by almost every party and government in every democracy—and even in totalitarian nations, that had an aggressive foreign policy that and had domestic critics. By eliminating internal debate of the foreign policy or war policy, the government accomplishes two objectives. Foreign enemies, rivals and even friends perceive that the nation is much more united on the policies than it really is, and the administration does not have to spend time and effort fending off critics or opponents domestically. The price, as every nation has discovered, is not only more intense and sometimes violent opposition when things do not go right or as promised, but the nation tends to maintain a failed policy too long and does not change and minimize its damages. The Vietnam War in America was a classic example of both of these prices being paid dearly.
Carter philosophically did not see his role as the head of his party anywhere near as important as his Presidential role. At the same time, Carter had forged Congressional majority support from a coalition of conservative Democrats and liberal Republicans. However, that alienated him even more from the liberal Democrats who even fielded Ted Kennedy as a primary candidate against him. Carter won the nomination but lost many of his own party for the general election and he lost to Ronald Reagan.
David M. Axelrod is an American political consultant and analyst and former White House official. He is best known for being the chief strategist for Barack Obama's presidential campaigns. After Obama's election, Axelrod was appointed as Senior Advisor to the President. He left the position in early 2011 and became the Senior Strategist for Obama's successful re-election campaign in 2012. Axelrod wrote for the Chicago Tribune, and joined CNN as Senior Political Commentator in 2015. As of December 2019, Axelrod serves as the director of the non-partisan University of Chicago Institute of Politics. His memoir is titled Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.
