Outgoing White House senior adviser David Axelrod recently gave a personal rundown of a few of the strongest potential 2012 Republican presidential candidates, saying that President Barack Obama would be prepared for the challenge regardless of who the GOP nominated.
In an interview with Fox News, Axelrod was again sure to make mention of supposed frontrunner Mitt Romney's work on overhauling the Bay State's health care system.
"He was a formidable governor. In fact, many of the elements of our health care plan were derived from his health care plan," Axelrod said, before suggesting that he'd "be remembered fondly" for his work on the popular reform effort.
In addressing the other former governors in the race, Sarah Palin of Alaska and Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, Axelrod noted that they were both employed by Fox News and wondered if they might be hesitant to give up their "platform" on the network.
"She's an interesting person. I know she has a robust broadcast career at Fox, and I don't know if she's going to want to give that up," Axelrod said of Palin. "The same with Governor Huckabee, who's a very formidable person, a very genial person, someone I personally like, but they have a great platform right now, and I don't know whether they're going to want to give that up."
Regardless of who the candidate was, Axelrod claimed, "we'll have a good debate."
Watch Axelrod's entire interview with Fox News or this segment, clipped by GOP 12: