A Ben Wallace-Wells piece in the New York Times today features Barack Obama's key advisor, political consultant David Axelrod. The ruthless Axelrod's part in Obama's political rocketry goes back 15 years, and the story most notably mentions a pivotal point in Illinois' 2004 U.S. Senate Democratic primary . . .
In reading the interesting piece, one can't help but note the massive photo at the top, featuring Axelrod and Obama conferring in Obama's U.S. Senate office.
Good thing they're in DC, huh. . . if they were talking about a politics and the presidential race in Obama's old Springfield office, well, that conversation would be ethically banned. Maybe not so in DC. . . .
Link: Barack Obama - David Axelrod - Obama's Narrator - Ben Wallace-Wells - New York Times.
It is difficult to discuss Axelrod in certain circles in Chicago without the matter of the Blair Hull divorce papers coming up. As the 2004 Senate primary neared, it was clear that it was a contest between two people: the millionaire liberal, Hull, who was leading in the polls, and Obama, who had built an impressive grass-roots campaign. About a month before the vote, The Chicago Tribune revealed, near the bottom of a long profile of Hull, that during a divorce proceeding, Hull’s second wife filed for an order of protection. In the following few days, the matter erupted into a full-fledged scandal that ended up destroying the Hull campaign and handing Obama an easy primary victory. The Tribune reporter who wrote the original piece later acknowledged in print that the Obama camp had “worked aggressively behind the scenes” to push the story. But there are those in Chicago who believe that Axelrod had an even more significant role — that he leaked the initial story. They note that before signing on with Obama, Axelrod interviewed with Hull. They also point out that Obama’s TV ad campaign started at almost the same time. Axelrod swears up and down that “we had nothing to do with it” . . .
