ABC News reports:
Former Obama chief strategist David Axelrod has accepted the position of Senior Adviser in the White House, sources tell ABC News.
He will join Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill, who has accepted the position of Obama's White House Chief of Staff.
Axelrod is a sharp political strategist and Emanuel brings a lot of strengths to the office.
The New Republic adds that Axelrod and Emanuel are close friends -- Axelrod even signed the ketubah at Emanuel's wedding. Rolling Stone quotes Emanuel saying that during the campaign, they spoke several times a day in a "sounding board" capacity.
The New York Times wrote of Axelrod recently:
In many ways, Mr. Axelrod is a classic example of the Washington political consultant (even though he lives in Chicago and says he has no intention of moving to the capital if Mr. Obama wins). He has been making advertisements and offering advice for candidates for mayor, senator and president for a generation, since quitting his job as a newspaper reporter in 1984. He has a particular specialty in helping black candidates appeal to white electorates and has tallied up a list of corporate clients along the way.
But Mr. Axelrod, in this client-consultant relationship, appears to be something different, with a personal investment in Mr. Obama's success that is obvious in the distress marked on his face whenever the candidate comes under attack.
Every politician has a guardian angel, and every presidential hopeful has a right-hand dispenser of wisdom. Yet in the trio of top strategists around Mr. Obama, including Robert Gibbs, a senior communications adviser, and David Plouffe, the campaign manager, it is Mr. Axelrod who has been at Mr. Obama's side the longest and has the most interwoven relationship with him.
"Although he is as tough as they come, he's actually not a mercenary," said Mr. Obama, of Illinois, in an interview. "He actually believes in what we're doing, which actually makes him a bad consultant when he doesn't believe in the candidate. And he's a great consultant when he believes."
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