David Axelrod on The Huffington Post

Charles Butler: President Obama's Afghanistan Speech a True Capitulation

2009-12-02T12:52:19Z

I waited with great anticipation as millions of Americans to hear the President Obama's speech about his Afghanistan policy. Let's be clear about this point, President Obama's policy and not a remnant of the Bush administration.

What I heard was very perplexing to say the least, on the one hand, we will put more troops on the ground, but only for eighteen months until July of 2011. Hmmmm!

Okay, let's get this straight. The president has authorized increasing troop strength in Afghanistan by 30,000 troops to begin in April of 2010, but we will begin the American troop withdrawal in July of 2011. The case could be made, why send troops at all if you have a withdrawal date, without considering the state of the conditions in the country.

Now if I were fighting a war in Afghanistan against coalition troops and I knew that after July 2011 my enemies would be leaving the country, it would be stupid of me not to wait until they left. Especially since my enemies outnumber and outgun me.

The president capitulated the on issue of having the resolve to finish the war, and give the Afghan people back their country without the Taliban or al-Qaida as a viable threat to their sovereign state. The enemy is clear about the Afghanistan timetable and now it is a waiting game.

I thought President Obama's speech was very weak, amateurish, and naïve to say the least. Okay, what do I really think! The whole thing seemed a bit staged, at West Point in front of the Corps of Cadets. The cadet's response to different parts of the speech was non-existent and when they did it was a bit lukewarm, measured and restrained. From the looks on their faces of most of them did not seemed very impressed with the president's speech at all. David Axelrod thought the President would receive rousing applauses to his well-thought-out and untimely plan, because these were young people. After all, didn't the Candidate Obama get young people out to vote in November, well, yes, but not these kind of young people! You see these young people were already voting, and committed to America. They have a mature mind, principles, and convictions unlike the President and his crowd at the same age. They are not trying to find themselves through experimentation with drugs. God Bless our young men and women in the Officer Training Programs around the country. They will guide America back to greatness after their grandparents and parents did their level best to try to sell it away from us for profit.

President Obama has had this Afghanistan proposal of his desk for the last five months, during that time a number of American lives have been lost for the lack of troop support, that should be brought to bear and laid on the conscience of the Obama administration.

The twist that broke the camel's back is the establishment of an exit strategy date. The pronouncement troop withdrawal was a blunder on part of the Obama administration. The message from President Obama should have brief and clear: "We will place an additional 30,000 troops in Afghanistan, and ask for more troops from our allies. We will remain in country until conditions on the ground improve and dictate our withdrawal and the Afghan government is in control of the country". Those few words, put an entirely different meaning on the commitment of American troops, and coalition forces to the to the Afghanistan war.

The Obama administration has to stop campaigning to get down to governing. All of the campaign-like staged speeches and events are becoming quite transparent to the American people and foreigners alike. If you don't believe me look videotape of the West Point Corps of Cadet, they were respectful but, not engaged or accepting of his message. The question I would ask his team is: What would be more powerful than the president speaking on the Afghan war policy from the Oval Office?

The answer is clear, that might project a man in charge of the most powerful country in world, confident in his armed forces, cabinet, and the American people. You know that might offend our enemies and that is the last thing President Obama wants to do!

Respectfully,

Charles Butler

Mike Papantonio: Obama Is "Bush Light"

2009-12-01T13:02:24Z

Stanford University produced a study that showed that voters are repulsed by politicians who don't deliver what they promised. According to Stanford, "flip flop," mealy-mouthed candidates always lose their voter base. David Axelrod should force Obama to read that report, titled "Candidate Inconsistency and Voter Choice." Voters dislike inconsistency. They are infuriated by bait and switch political policy.

Obama's situation can be explained with easy math. The Stanford study says if a politician is perceived as inconsistent in his commitment, he will lose 14% of his support. But Obama was only elected by a margin of 8%. Uh oh!

The engine driving the impending train wreck for Obama and his spineless advisors is that he made promises that turned out millions of supporters. That promise was that we were going to see "change." Almost immediately we began to see "Bush Lite." The village idiot leaves, and Obama begins trying on his clothes.

It begins with the "change" appointments of Tim Geithner and Larry Summers. Everyone who followed their careers in the financial industry started asking "Aren't these the same guys who helped Alan Greenspan engineer the greed-driven deregulated destruction of banks, brokerage houses, and mom and pop's pension programs?" The accurate answer is "Yes, absolutely."

Then there was the Eric Holder "change" appointment as Attorney General. Holder is a perfect product of the mega corporate defense firm of Covington & Burling. Those are the guys who everyday show up as lobbyists and lawyers to champion the voice of the Exxons, Pfizers, Halliburtons, Goldman Sachs and AIGs as they roll over the pleas of abused consumers.

And we can't forget the "change" appointment of Ken Salazar to Secretary of the Interior. There was never a Bush anti-environmental policy that Salazar did not embrace.

Or how about the Blackwater story. That's the story where our "change" president, while he was running for office, seemed to recognize how dangerous "money loyal" mercenaries with SAM missiles are to national security. But today our "Bush Lite" leader has allowed them to become more armed and dangerous than ever.

More Obama-styled "change" emerges this week as we hear that the same military industrial machine that owned Bush is now calling the shots for Obama. What was that promise about Bush's Iraq? Oh yeah, it was that we would stop the billions in deficit bleeding by getting out. And how about that promise of "change" in Afghanistan? My memory was that we would avoid the same quagmire that Great Britain and Russia experienced in Afghanistan when stupid pride overwhelmed good sense. Not only did their soldiers bleed to death, so did their economies.

Honest observers would admit that Obama was left with a Bush mess uglier than New Orleans after Katrina. His ability to fix those disastrous GOP years can't be judged by ten months of efforts. But we can judge his commitment to those catchy phrases like "yes we can" and "change we can believe in." In 2008, America was hungry for an innovative, believable president with a brain. We believed change was coming. We weren't looking for "Republican Lite." Axelrod needs to remind Obama about that at the same time he shows him that Stanford University study.

Axelrod: 'I Thought Lisa [Madigan] Would Give Us The Best Shot' Of Keeping Obama's Senate Seat

2009-11-24T19:08:44Z

CHICAGO — The White House and Illinois Democrats said Tuesday that their bid to hold on to President Barack Obama's old Senate seat won't be easy and their difficulties aren't just because of the scandal that engulfed ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

Next year is the first major election for Democrats since Blagojevich was arrested last year on federal corruption charges and removed from office. He has pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to sell or trade Obama's Senate seat.

Axelrod: 'We Pride Ourselves On Thinking More About Chicago Than D.C.'

2009-11-22T17:08:45Z

This is a Manhattan-bred, University of Chicago-educated Everyman who would look rumpled in a Hugo Boss suit and still loves Manny's deli on the Near West Side. Doing the world's business, he has discoursed in Moscow with Mikhail Gorbachev ("most interesting person I've met in the job") but exhibits Heartland derision for Washington.

Axelrod Knocks Romney: 'Never Had Responsibility For Any Decision Akin To This' (VIDEO)

2009-11-15T10:30:16Z

On CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, White House senior adviser David Axelrod responded to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney's criticism of the president. Romney expressed incredulity that President Obama had not made up his mind on Afghanistan.

"Why is it taking so long?" host John King asked.

"Governor Romney has to choose one argument of another," Axelrod responded. "Either he has to say he is not paying attention or he has to say he is taking too long because he has been involved in a rigorous review ... You know, I know that Governor Romney has never had responsibility for any decision akin to this, so he just may not be familiar with all that it entails."

WATCH:

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Anonymous Democratic Strategist Claims White House Discouraged Fox News Appearances

2009-11-08T18:53:59Z

At least one Democratic political strategist has gotten a blunt warning from the White House to never appear on Fox News Channel, an outlet that presidential aides have depicted as not so much a news-gathering operation as a political opponent bent on damaging the Obama administration.

John R. Bohrer: Can Paterson Learn From The Secret Race to Replace Jon Corzine?

2009-11-06T10:16:04Z

The White House wants David Paterson out of the running for New York's 2010 gubernatorial election. Paterson hopes they'll reconsider.

Because hey -- it worked for Jon Corzine.

In early August, David Axelrod and Patrick Gaspard met at a New York City hotel with Corzine's campaign staffers, asking whether or not the incumbent governor could actually win. Corzine's people assured them that he could. Obama's pollster became a top level adviser and it was settled. Corzine would remain the nominee.

This is patty-cake compared to what the White House did to Governor Paterson -- planting a story on the front page of a Sunday edition of the New York Times saying they wanted him gone.

Or so you would think.

On Wednesday, New Jersey's former acting Governor (and current Senate President) Dick Codey revealed that the Obama administration was pushing a lot harder than previously reported to remove Corzine from the ticket.

A week after Vice President Biden nearly boycotted Corzine's primary night rally on June 2, Codey received a call from Gaspard, the White House political director, to talk about the direction of the campaign. The calls continued into July. Corzine was polling badly, whereas Congressman Frank Pallone and Newark Mayor Cory Booker were looking viable. The White House was cautious, but concerned. President Obama even came into the state to rally at the governor's side. And then, the widespread corruption busts of July 23 brought the West Wing's faith in Corzine to a new low. Gaspard asked Codey point-blank if he would get into the race if Corzine dropped out. Codey said yes, but also that he would have to tell Corzine of their conversation out of courtesy, and ultimately defer to the governor's decision.

Thus, the early August meeting. Codey never heard back from the White House.

This ought to give David Paterson heart. The White House tested the waters and backed off -- and like him, Corzine was really unpopular. If only Paterson could rebuild his image (cue: television ads), reinforce his political strength (cue: Harold Ickes) and maybe get some things done (cue: special session of the legislature), he can reverse his yearlong slide into electoral oblivion.

Unfortunately for Paterson, he has disadvantages that Corzine did not: a contested primary next September and powerful leaders opposed to his renomination.

Corzine was weak this spring, but failed to draw a viable challenger in the June primary. This could be because Rep. Rob Andrews received such a thorough drumming for challenging Senator Frank Lautenberg in 2008. Andrews' support came from South Jersey, whose top boss George Norcross realized his power is more potent in the backroom than in the voting booth. According to WNBC's Brian Thompson, Norcross waited until after the primary was over to mount a 'Replace Corzine' campaign, touting Pallone or Booker as the stand-in.

But his candidates might not have been ready to step up. Pallone, who turned down the chance to replace Bob Torricelli on the ticket in 2002, couldn't leave Washington this summer -- not as chairman of the Health Subcommittee. And Cory Booker probably didn't want to mar a bright political future with a backroom deal, only to run in a lousy economic environment.

This left Codey, which Norcross could not have liked. The two are known to feud (in the months since, Norcross appears to have deposed Codey from his Senate leadership position). So, major backing for the 'Replace Corzine' movement folded. Without that, the White House had no other choice but to support the incumbent.

To be fair, Corzine's campaign wasn't just spinning plates -- there was a good strategy and a real shot at winning. The race broke the other way, that's all. Paterson needs to put forward a plan to win, but that's not all he needs. New York Democrats and the White House will not pass up on a surefire winner like Andrew Cuomo for a questionable candidate. Rehabilitated or not, there's simply no way for Paterson to survive with Cuomo in the race.

Paterson might as well work to restore his image: he's still got more than a year left in office and the opportunity to accomplish some things. But if Corzine's example can teach him anything, it's that he's kidding himself if he thinks he'll be the Democratic nominee in 2010.

David Axelrod Gives Interview To Fox News' Major Garrett

2009-11-04T14:24:25Z

White House senior adviser David Axelrod has given an interview to Fox News' Major Garrett, the latest sign that the administration is ramping down its feud with the cable news outlet.

Clips of Axelrod's interview will air on Fox News throughout the day as well as on "Special Report with Bret Baier" at 6PM and "The Fox Report" at 7PM.

The interview touched on topics including Afghanistan, health care, Iran, yesterday's election and the one year anniversary of the President's election to office. No word if the two also discussed the White House's feud with Fox.

Fox News executive Michael Clemente met at the White House with Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last week. Axelrod had coffee with Fox News chief Roger Ailes in September.

Axelrod told Bob Schieffer on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday that the White House isn't "at war with anyone."

"We're at war only with people who represent mistruths as truth," he said. "And that's true of any network whether it's FOX, CBS, or any other network. When errors of fact are stated or when opinion is offered as fact, we will challenge that. And that is -- that will be our policy going forward. And the American people deserve that. And we have to do that for the sake of the administration."

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe is set to appear on "On the Record" Thursday.

Axelrod: "Everything About The Politics Of Washington Works Against Hope And Optimism And Unity"

2009-11-04T08:56:30Z

In the White House, the wistfulness for the simpler days is palpable. "The day was just suffused with emotion and hope and warmth," David Axelrod, Mr. Obama's senior adviser, recalled about Election Day last year. "But it is an emotional peak that you can't maintain day to day as you do the business of government. The challenge is to maintain that degree of idealism and optimism as you work through the meat grinder.

"Everything about the politics of Washington works against hope and optimism and unity. So you have to push against that every day, understanding that it's going to be an imperfect end result." He added: "That night was sublime. And much of what goes on in Washington is prosaic. Or profane."

Robert Scheer: Keeping Afghanistan Safe from Democracy

2009-11-04T03:36:44Z

The most idiotic thing being said about America's involvement in Afghanistan is that the best way to protect the 68,000 U.S. troops there now is by putting an additional 40,000 in harm's way.

People who argue for that plan clearly have not read Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal's report pushing for escalation. The general is as honest as he is wrong in laying out the purpose of this would-be expanded mission, which is to remold Afghanistan in a Western image by making U.S. troops far more vulnerable, rather than less so.

He is honest in arguing that American troops would have to be deployed throughout the rugged and otherwise inhospitable terrain of rural Afghanistan, entering intimately into the ways of local life so as to win the hearts and minds of a people who clearly wish we would not extend the favor. He is wrong in indicating, without providing any evidence to support the proposition, that this very costly and highly improbable quest to be the first foreign power to successfully model life in Afghanistan would be connected with defeating the al-Qaida terrorists.

As the president's top national security adviser has stated, there are fewer than 100 al-Qaida members left in Afghanistan and they have no capacity to launch attacks. These remnants of a foreign Arab force assembled by the U.S. to thwart the Soviets in their hapless effort to conquer Afghanistan are now alienated from the locally based insurgency.

As Matthew Hoh, the former Marine captain and foreign service officer in charge of the most contested area, said recently in his letter of resignation, we have stumbled into a 35-year-long civil war between rural people "who want to be left alone" and a corrupt urban government that the U.S. insists on backing. Hoh, who quit after a decade of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, wrote that he was resigning not because of the hardships of his assignment but rather because he no longer believed in its stated purpose:

" ... [I]n the course of my five months of service in Afghanistan ... I have lost understanding and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan. ... To put simply: I fail to see the value or the worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditures of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year old civil war. ... Like the Soviets, we continue to secure and bolster a failing state, while encouraging an ideology and system of government unknown and unwanted by its people. ... I have observed that the bulk of the insurgency fights not for the white banner of the Taliban, but rather against the presence of foreign soldiers and taxes imposed by an unrepresentative government in Kabul."

Just how unrepresentative was amply demonstrated in a very low-turnout election which the U.S.-backed candidate, Hamid Karzai, won after stealing one-third of the ballots he claimed for his victory, according to U.N. observers. In a message of congratulation to Karzai, President Barack Obama made reference to the need for reform and an end to the corruption that is endemic in the Karzai regime but then stated, "Although the process was messy, I am pleased to say that the final outcome was determined in accordance with Afghan law, which I think is very important."

What law? A runoff was avoided only when Karzai refused to accede to his opponent's demand for changes in the election commission that had stuffed the ballot boxes.

When Bob Schieffer of CBS said of the election "the thing was a fraud," White House senior adviser David Axelrod had the arrogance to defend the rigged process as having "proceeded in the constitutional way." Just what is it we are telling the world about our belief in the integrity of elections? It is no different from our having extolled those garbage elections that occurred with great regularity in Vietnam during the war there, a point made to great effect by Hoh:

"Our support for this kind of government, coupled with a misunderstanding of the insurgency's true nature, reminds me horribly of our involvement with South Vietnam; an unpopular and corrupt government we backed at the expense of our Nation's own internal peace, against an insurgency whose nationalism we arrogantly and ignorantly mistook as a rival to our own Cold War ideology."

Obama must know the truth of those words and should heed them before he marches down the disastrous path pursued by another Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson -- who, we now know from his White House telephone tapes, sacrificed the youth of this country in a war that he always knew never made sense.

Giannoulias Pulls Ahead Of Kirk In New Poll From Campaign

2009-11-02T15:15:21Z

Democrat Alexi Giannoulias has pulled slightly ahead of Republican Mark Kirk in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in the race for Illinois' soon-to-be-vacant U.S. Senate seat, according to a new poll.

A poll commissioned by the Giannoulias campaign shows the first-term state treasurer and Democratic frontrunner beating the North Shore congressman 46 percent to 43 percent based on a sample of 805 likely voters.

The same poll, conducted Oct. 25-28 by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research, shows Democratic rival David Hoffman trailing Kirk 39 percent to 48 percent. The poll contains a 3.5-percentage-point margin of error.

Fellow Democrats Cheryle Robinson Jackson, the former president of the Chicago Urban League, and Jacob Meister, a Chicago attorney, were not included in the poll.

Giannoulias campaign spokeswoman Kati Phillips said Monday it left Jackson out because it already had information on her from a previous poll the campaign commissioned in late July. That poll showed Giannoulias getting 45 percent of the vote, compared with 7 percent for Jackson and 17 percent for Chris Kennedy, who never entered the race.

This was the first time the Giannoulias team had included Hoffman in a poll. The former Chicago inspector general and federal prosecutor entered the race in late August.

The Kirk campaign, however, conducted its own poll Oct. 12 which had their candidate leading Giannoulias by seven points.

A Rasmussen poll from two weeks ago had the two candidates in a dead heat.

Both Giannoulias and Hoffman have had White House meetings with President Obama's senior advisor, David Axelrod, about the race for the president's former seat.

The Obama Administration has said it will not endorse a candidate after it failed to persuade Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to enter the race.

HBO's "By The People" Gets Inside Obama's Campaign, Catches Emotional Moments On The Trail

2009-11-02T11:40:18Z

NEW YORK — Pivotal presidential campaigns are frequently defined in retrospect by documentaries.

"The War Room" chronicled Bill Clinton's political operation in 1992, adding a phrase to the political lexicon in the process. Alexandra Pelosi's "Journeys With George" captured the oddities of a national campaign on board George W. Bush's airplane in 2000.

Conservatives To GOP: We Are All Joe The Plumbers

2009-11-01T11:11:59Z

Democrats proclaimed on Sunday, that the GOP had become the party of Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber and the ideological fringe after news broke that conservatives had purged a moderate Republican from a special election in upstate New York. And, in a sign of where the GOP psyche lies, some conservatives eagerly embraced the frame.

Taking to the Sunday show circuit, officials in the White House, close presidential advisers, and longtime Democratic strategists all framed the departure of Dede Scozzafava from New York's 23rd District race as a sign that the GOP had grown dangerously, ideologically exclusive.

Scozzafava felt compelled to drop out after many in her party chose to back Conservative Party nominee Doug Hoffman instead.

Valerie Jarrett, one of Barack Obama's closest confidants, declared that the Republican Party had become "more and more extreme and more and more marginalized."

David Plouffe, the man who managed the Obama campaign, insisted that the GOP was hanging up a sign saying: "No moderates need apply."

"I think more they're becoming a very motivated core, but a small core, about 23 percent of the country," he said during an appearance on "Meet the Press."

David Axelrod, Obama's chief communications strategist, told CBS' "Face The Nation" that the news from upstate New York "sends a clear message to moderates in that party that there's no room at the inn for them."

Longtime strategist James Carville may have summarized the talking point most succinctly when he told CNN's "State of the Union" that "Ronald Reagan's big tent just collapsed in upstate New York."

"It no longer exists," Carville added. "And the reality is, a lot of Republicans are delighted at that prospect."

Indeed, while Plouffe disparaged the Republican brand as dominated by "the Limbaughs and Becks of the world," conservatives embraced the description as a badge of honor.

In a telling scene captured by The Washington Post, one local NY-23 voter told the Conservative Party's Hoffman that she was drawn to his candidacy by none other than Joe the Plumber -- the symbolic everyman voter who turned out to be a clumsy and decidedly conservative media figure.

"You know why I got involved? Joe the Plumber!" the voter said. "I met him at CPAC in Washington. He said, 'You've got to get involved.' And now I'm a City Council member in Saratoga Springs."

For his part, Limbaugh seemed to revel in Scozzafava's departure, telling Fox News that the GOP had finally found the path towards electoral viability.

"The Republican Party needs to learn something," he announced. "If it goes country club blue blood moderate it is going to lose. If it goes Reagan conservative and commits to it, it is going to win in landslides."

But actual Republican officials seemed torn by what had transpired. While party members and official campaign arms all flocked on Saturday to back Hoffman, some big names did not hide their concern about the Scozzafava purge.

"This makes life more complicated from the standpoint of this: If we get into a cycle where every time one side loses, they run a third-party candidate, we'll make Pelosi speaker for life and guarantee Obama's re-election," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who had endorsed Scozzafava, toldThe New York Times. "I think we are going to get into a very difficult environment around the country if suddenly conservative leaders decide they are going to anoint people without regard to local primaries and local choices."

"This is a very unusual circumstance," House Minority Leader John Boehner explained to CNN. Pressed as to whether moderates would still be willing to run for office after witnessing what happened in NY-23, Boehner replied: "I would hope so. I would hope so. Because what we need is a broad group of people in our party."

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David Axelrod On H1N1 Vaccines: 'We Overpromised'

2009-11-01T01:37:14Z

David Axelrod, President Obama's senior adviser, says the administration based its predictions about how many doses of the H1N1 vaccine would be available by mid-October on bad information.

David Hoffman Meets With David Axelrod At White House

2009-10-29T13:25:13Z

President Obama's senior adviser David Axelrod sat down on Thursday for a strategy session with one of the four Democrats running for the president's former U.S. Senate seat, the second such meeting this month.

Axelrod met with former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman at the White House to discuss ways of keeping a Democrat in the seat that much-beleaguered appointee Roland Burris has said he will vacate at term's end.

National Republicans have targeted the Illinois seat as one they think they can win in 2010, and the White House has been skittish about the race ever since they failed to woo their preferred candidate, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, to run.

"It's no secret that the White House tried to find other candidates to get in the race," Hoffman campaign manager Michael Powell told the Huffington Post. "But David Axelrod was very gracious with his time and was very interested to hear David Hoffman's view of the race."

Two weeks ago Axelrod had a similar meeting with one of Hoffman's rivals, Illinois state Treasurer and Obama basketball pal Alexi Giannoulias. After the Hoffman campaign let the White House know their man was coming to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, Axelrod invited the former federal prosecutor and Supreme Court clerk to the White House.

Axelrod and Hoffman talked for about 15 minutes while the candidate laid out why he was the strongest candidate to face likely Republican nominee, Congressman Mark Kirk.

In a race against Kirk, "David Hoffman takes corruption off the table," Powell said. "Kirk wants to run against corruption. On the issues he can't win."

Powell said Giannoulias, the current Democratic frontrunner, never came up during the discussion.

"Alexi would like everyone to believe that he has this race locked up, but any objective observer would tell you that's not true," Powell said. "The race is not settled, not yet formed."

The Obama Administration has said it will not be making an endorsement in the primary, and Hoffman didn't ask for one. Although his campaign hired Axelrod's former Chicago political consulting firm, Hoffman had never met Axelrod in person.

Hoffman entered the race nearly two months ago and currently trails Giannoulias in fundraising and name recognition.

But Powell said Hoffman has been on a fundraising tear, and has commitments totaling nearly $1 million since the new reporting period began. Hoffman, who loaned his own campaign $500,000, has set a fundraising goal of $2 million this quarter.

The meeting at the White House could help Hoffman's efforts to close the gap with Giannoulias and create some distance from the two other Democrats. Former Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Robinson Jackson and Chicago attorney Jacob Meister are also seeking the nomination.

"Ultimately these races are about whether the candidate can put it together and win these races," Powell said. "David started this campaign with enormous credibility. Now it's all about proving his viability."

Dana Joy Altman: Real Food Rehab: Save The Deli

2009-10-27T17:20:26Z

Not too long ago I discovered an article on the Atlantic Food Channel called, "Why I Want To Save The Deli". It was written by journalist and deli-obsessive, David Sax, who was coming out with a new book called Save the Deli. The article spoke to me in a language I completely understood; it triggered something in me -- a call to action -- so I called his publicist right away for an advance copy of the book.

Save the Deli chronicles David's travels throughout the United States as well as Canada and Europe in search of authentic delicatessen. He documents the histories, the characters, the food and how it's made (in glorious, mouth-watering detail). He also discovers where it still thrives, where it's in decline, and where to go for particular dishes. It's part history, part travelogue and the "Food and Yiddish Appendix" in the back is worth the price alone.

What I love about the book is that it's written with such enthusiasm and heart! He captures the very essence of deli culture -- the intoxicating smells, the one of a kind tastes, the tumult, the noise, the wise-cracking waitresses -- which is a huge part of the Jewish experience that I knew and loved growing up. It wasn't until I read this book that I realized that as deli culture dies, a piece of my own history dies along with it. I want to save the deli, too!

A little background: I grew up in Chicago with a grandfather from Kiev, Russia who would take me to the original Ashkenaz Deli and Romanian Deli, both in Roger's Park. I would hand-pick my own pickle from a giant barrel (a ritual inconceivable today in a culture dependent on sanitizer gel) and stand in line and order a hand-sliced corned beef sandwich from the countermen who knew my grandparents by name. My father used to take me to the old Berwyn Fisheries on Sunday where they smoked everything in-house and we'd take home fresh rye, bagels, smoked chubs (whitefish), sable and sturgeon. I will never forget the smell in that place -- it was like breathing ice, smoke, fat and fish all in one breath. Pure heaven. So, I'm a die-hard deli lover if there ever was one.

And I have to say it breaks my heart that most children today haven't been indoctrinated into this world of deli foods and smoked fish. How can you thrive on a diet of chicken fingers? I mean really? And what kind of person do you become when you're exposed to such a narrow spectrum of foods and homogeneous eating experiences? (I'll save this topic for another time)

Anyway, I had the chance to interview David last week while he was on his book tour. He'd just gotten back from a morning visit to the White House! While there, he discovered that feet away from our President's inner sanctum in the office of special adviser, David Axelrod, are three photographs from Manny's Delicatessen here in Chicago including a shot of a knish and a pastrami sandwich and one of the legendary counterman, Gino. They were sandwiched (pardon the pun) next to photos of world leaders! Is that a hoot or what? It's amazing what a deli can do.

I feel like delis are a part of my personal history and I am nostalgic about it but frankly, I'd just be devastated if I couldn't get a bowl of matzo ball soup or a great corned beef sandwich with chopped liver on a whim. To me, that would be a huge loss. So how do you save the deli? This is where our interview began:

RFR: How do you hook a whole new generation on to deli food?

David Sax: I don't see it being any different from Southern Barbecue or something like that. If you told people ten years ago there'd be this rash of new Southern hipster barbecue joints they'd say, "Whaddya crazy? Barbecue?" The difficult thing is, a lot of delis open up and say, "It's going to be like old New York, it's going to be like delis used to be", and there's only so much you can do with a nostalgic bent and I think when you do that you don't necessarily capture that younger generation. You're selling it to the older generation.

I think for the places that are going to save the deli, they're going to be the ones who bring it into the new and they're not going to do it with wasabi meatballs or sliders, they're simply going to do it by being true to themselves and by raising the level of quality; going back to the way that things were prepared, without pandering to that same sense of lost history. They don't need photos of old New York or Maxwell Street on the wall, but they do need to cure their own stuff and stop bringing stuff in from outside. People from our generation who love food, they respect that more than anything. That's the best hope we have right now. And there are only a few places around the country that are doing it that way. I think we'll see more of it in the coming years, I hope to; because delis have tried to branch out and franchise and it took away from their soul and detracted from the original locations. They also tried to open it up to other types of food which drained away the authenticity of it and it hurt the traditional foods. You can't claim to make matzo balls and deep dish pizza really well, you've got to pick one or the other.

RFR: So who's doing great quality, artisanal deli in the States?

David Sax:The most interesting one I saw is Kenny & Zuke's out of Portland, Oregon. It's two guys, one was a food blogger, the other one owned a restaurant. One said to the other, "Hey, there's no good pastrami in Portland, whaddya say we make a good pastrami and sell it at the farmers' market and see if it sells." So they did and it sold out in ten minutes. The next week they came back with twice the amount of pastrami and they sold out in twenty minutes. They were smoking it in a barbecue smoker and curing it in barrels. So, then they started to do a Deli Brunch at his restaurant and it got so big they decided to do it full time.

They opened up their deli two years ago and it's doing incredibly well. They bake their own bread and bagels every morning in house, they smoke their own pastrami in a smoker with oak that they split with an axe in the basement and even though Kenny is from New York, they don't call themselves a New York-style deli. They're a Jewish delicatessen.

RFR: Have you ever felt as passionately about anything as you do deli? What's next for you?

David Sax: This started out when I was at university, so this has been a passion project for me for a number of years. I knew I was getting into journalism and I always knew I was going to write this book. And what's next is certainly undecided, but it's most likely not going to be about Jewish food because I just feel this one really came from the heart and I don't want to do anything just for the sake of, you know, "...now we can capture Jews 18 to 35 who like bagels." I'm not a food writer and I'm not a food critic and there are a lot of people who are and I think what interested me about this wasn't, "Oh this is a better sandwich and this is the best sandwich," it was the culture and the evolution of it and the business and the people that are within it. Maybe it will be something else Jewish, maybe it will be something else entirely. As of now, who knows?

JOIN ME AT THE SAVE THE DELI EVENT
Manny's Delicatessen, Chicago's most famous Jewish Deli, will be hosting a reading with David Sax this Thursday, October 29th at 6pm. Manny's is located at 1141 South Jefferson in Chicago. I will be there so please join me!

Here is also the link to David's Blog: http://www.savethedeli.com/

This is from the blog Real Food Rehab.

(c) 2009 Dana Joy Altman, Real Food Rehab, inc.

Alison Rose Levy: Hold the MSG: Food Triggers for Epilepsy and Other Neurological Illnesses

2009-10-26T05:23:25Z

Last week, 60 Minutes reported on David and Susan Axelrod's search for a cure for epilepsy prompted by their two decade plus experience of the ailment, which their adult daughter has suffered since infancy. But while Katie Couric admiringly covered the researchers seeking to find "the Cure," ie. new anti-convulsive drugs, once again proactive, preventive health care strategies that might help to reduce incidence of epileptic attacks were overlooked.

How ironic it is that in the midst of the health care reform debate, Axelrod, a key Obama aide, is so poorly informed about integrative strategies that could help his own daughter.

For neurological illnesses, including Parkinson's Disease, epilepsy, and others, a body of scientific research demonstrates that certain food additives, singly and in combination with each other, contribute to excessive nerve cell firing; and thus, may be a possible trigger for epileptic attacks and other neurological incidents. In keeping with that, limiting or altogether avoiding these ingredients is a strategy that some integrative physicians recommend, though many who could benefit are unaware of the dangers these common food additives pose.

Because of their activity--stimulating nerve cells to rapidly fire and burn out, ultimately resulting in nerve cell death, the food additives are considered to be "excitotoxins." While some naturally occur in the body, people who consume processed foods are exposed to a much greater amount than ever before since industrial food scientists regularly add them to processed foods to enhance the food's flavor. The most widely used food ingredients that have excitotoxic activity are monosodium glutamate, aspartame, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, and other additives that stimulate the taste buds and mask the flavor of many processed foods, Fresh, natural foods don't require this form of flavor enhancement. The artificial sweetener, aspartame, marketed as NutraSweet, Equal, and under several other brand names, is one of most widely consumed of the food additives with excitotoxic activity.

Nearly all food items sold in convenience stores are full of them, as are many processed, or packaged foods. If you read labels, you will discover that they are listed under many different names; and flavorings such as those in soups, soup mixes, and even many spices will often contain them as well.

With the increase in incidence of neurological illness, including Alzheimer's Disease, a basic proactive health strategy that many integrative practitioners recommend is to limit intake of these food ingredients. More information on excitotoxins can be found in Russell Blaylockm MD's book, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. Food Additives: A Shopper's Guide To What's Safe & What's Not by Christine Farlow is a shopper's guide to ingredient names.

For health information, science, and action, get the free ezine, the Health Outlook at www.health-journalist.com

Nancy Snow: Information War on Fox: No Upside for Obama Administration

2009-10-25T20:46:27Z

Last week, one of my former students wrote me about the Whitehouse/Fox News Channel hullabaloo.

Jennie was enrolled in the first class I ever taught at the Annenberg School of Communication, University of Southern California. The class was “War, Media and Propaganda,” and I taught it in spring 2002. I was writing a book then called Information War: American Propaganda, Free Speech & Opinion Control Since 9/11.

Information War was a direct response to the Bush-Cheney administration and government propaganda efforts to silence dissent in the media and among citizens.

In 2002 it was like shooting fish in a barrel to find examples of the last administration’s opinion control efforts. Bush and company certainly benefited from a close ideological tie to the Fox News Channel programming as well as most talk radio.

But it’s not just ideology alone that directs people to certain favored media. It’s a perceived tone. It’s shared values.

Fox News Channel has a programming style that comes across as less media elite than MSNBC or CNN. I’ve had many a conversation with my FNC-viewing friends who say that they feel an affinity with the network for not making fun of or dismissing their more conservative social and economic values.

So my student Jennie wondered what I thought about certain members of the Obama administration telling other news networks not to treat Fox like a real news organization.

My response was this:

It’s utterly ridiculous for the Obama administration to call out Fox News Channel. They don't know what they are up against; it's not just a cable news network.

Many FNC viewers consider themselves part of a social movement. Whether or not one agrees with everything discussed on FNC isn't the point.

It's very dangerous territory to tread for the Obama administration elite troika of Rahm Emanuel, Anita Dunn and David Axelrod. Anita Dunn started the finger pointing with her appearance on Howard Kurtz’s Reliable Sources. She said, "Fox News often operates almost as either the research arm or the communications arm of the Republican Party." David Axelrod followed with his revelation that Fox News “is not really news.” “It’s pushing a point of view.” Rahm Emanuel told CNN that President Obama considers Fox News “not a news organization so much as it has a perspective.” And so what?

Is this really what we’re paying these government officials to do for the American people?

I’m sure these comments earns brownie points with those who loathe Fox News Channel and its “Foxification” influence on other cable news networks. These same comments strengthen the core beliefs of conservatives but also marginalize independents who want a government in Washington that transcends petty partisan diversions.

This is an administration put in office on a campaign pledge of practicality over ideology. In the Fox case, it is treading on ideological terrain. I don’t think it is the job of Obama’s top staff to use government time to go after Fox.

Obama got it right earlier this week when he was asked about the information war between the White House and his administration. He said, "It's not something I'm losing a lot of sleep over.” To further emphasize his point, he said, “I think the American people are a lot more interested in what we're doing to create jobs or how we're handling the situation in Afghanistan.”

You are right, Mr. President. Jobs at home and global interventions seem a bit more important these days, especially on the eve of your first year anniversary in the White House.

Dr. Nancy Snow is associate professor of public diplomacy at Syracuse University where she teaches in the Newhouse and Maxwell Schools. Her most recent book is Persuader-in-Chief: Global Opinion and Public Diplomacy in the Age of Obama.

David And Susan Axelrod Fight For Epilepsy Cure

2009-10-23T09:00:12Z

Most Americans know David Axelrod as a senior political adviser to President Obama. But last night, David and his wife Susan joined Katie Couric on CBS's 60 Minutes to discuss his other role -- as a concerned parent of a daughter with epilepsy.

Susan Axelrod described the discovery of her daughter's illness to Parade in February of this year. In early 1982, the Axelrods' seven-month-old daughter Lauren had a cold:

"I picked her up, and she went into a seizure--arms extended, eyes rolling back in her head. I realized she'd most likely been having seizures all night long. I phoned my mother and cried, 'This is normal, right? Babies do this?' She said, 'No, they don't.'"

With the continuing seizures and a potential cure not even a topic of discussion, Susan ultimately dropped out of her MBA program to take care of Lauren full time. Even as their family grew and David Axelrod left the Chicago Tribune for a political career, Susan's focus remained on her daughter's epilepsy and the struggle to find adequate treatment.

"At first we thought it would be a passing thing; we never realized these seizures would define her whole life," David Axelrod has said.

The Axelrods are far from alone.

Epilepsy impacts up to three million Americans of all ages; more than multiple sclerosis, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson's disease combined. Federal and private dollars invested in epilepsy research pale in comparison to those spent on other diseases.

"Every day 500 people are diagnosed with epilepsy and doctors don't know what caused it for more than 300 of them," according to Susan Axelrod. In 1998, the Axelrods and other parents of epileptic children decided to do something to help the staggering number of Americans who live with this disease. They founded Citizens United for Researching Epilepsy, or CURE, which has since raised over $10 million to fund over 90 cutting edge research projects into cures for epilepsy.

The 60 Minutes episode also featured CURE's scientific adviser, Harvard researcher Dr. Frances Jensen, and Captain Pat Horan, who has struggled with epilepsy after a traumatic brain injury incurred in 2007 on the battlefield in Iraq.

Susan Axelrod hopes that the CBS segment, along with CURE's new Every Dollar Counts, Every Seizure Matters campaign, will bring new fervor to finding a cure for this disease. Axelrod discusses the new campaign and the 60 Minutes episode on her personal blog for CURE.

Because of their work with CURE, the Axelrods found Keppra, an anti-convulsant that was new in the early parts of this decade. It worked for Lauren, and she hasn't had a seizure in nine years. Though the drug doesn't work for everyone, Susan Axelrod is committed to continuing the research and finding an ultimate treatment or cure for epilepsy that works for everyone.

The Every Dollar Counts, Every Seizure Matters campaign hopes to raise $250,000 by the end of the year to fund a new research award. Meanwhile, friends and supporters of CURE are already organizing viewing parties for the Sunday segment.

You can make a donation to CURE directly via the widget below. Help us meet our current goal of $5,000 to find better treatments and a cure for epilepsy:

The CURE website offers many ways of working toward the eradication of epilepsy. Here's a list of several actions they encourage:

Learn More: Get the facts.

Host: Plan an event.

Share: Create your own CURE webpage.

Speak Out: Tell Congress we need a cure.

Pledge: In-kind help is critical.

In the News: Enlist local media.

At Work: Double your donation with matching donors.

Clinical Trials: Play an active role in medical research.

Join CURE: Be a part of their family.

Watch the segment through CBS.com below:

Do you have your own experiences with epilepsy? Leave us a comment or e-mail us at impact@huffingtonpost.com. We want to hear from you!

Contributions made through the above widget go to the Causecast Foundation, the online donation nonprofit partner of The Huffington Post. Causecast does not take any fees from this transaction and guarantees that 100% of your donation, minus the PayPal transaction fee of .044%, will go to CURE.

Obama Aides Stand Up To Big Banks On Sunday Morning Talk Shows

2009-10-19T09:45:45Z

WASHINGTON -- Striking a populist tone, several of President Obama's leading advisers on Sunday issued stern warnings to Wall Street. They said big banks must not resist greater government oversight now that they have regained their financial footing through taxpayer financed bailouts.

Firm With Obama Ties Cashes In Overseas

2009-10-19T08:36:23Z

After helping to elect Barack Obama, a group of the president's top campaign strategists moved quickly last spring to capitalize on their success as the new masters of the political universe: they flew off to Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, to sign a lucrative contract to advise Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on her race for that country's presidency.

The arrangement between AKPD Media, the powerhouse political consulting firm founded by senior White House aide David Axelrod (who no longer works with the firm), and Tymoshenko, a billionaire business tycoon once dubbed "the gas princess," has so far gotten no attention in the U.S. press.

Axelrod Refuses To Say If Obama Will End Antitrust Exemption For Insurance Companies (VIDEO)

2009-10-18T15:50:32Z

During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week, senior Obama adviser David Axelrod refused to say directly whether or not President Obama would sign health care reform legislation that would end the antitrust exemption for insurance companies, something Obama teased in his radio address yesterday.

Pressed repeatedly by Stephanopoulos, Axelrod continued to dance around the issue, finally saying "we'll see what Congress does."

WATCH:

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GOP Gaining Advantage In 2010

2009-10-17T12:59:49Z

Three forces threaten Democrats in the 2010 elections: populist anger on the right, disaffection in the middle and potential disillusionment on the left.

Little more than a year out, the political landscape for the coming midterm election looks decidedly more favorable for Republicans than in either of the last two elections -- hardly a surprise given the shellacking they took in 2006 and 2008.

Axelrod Meets With Illinois Senate Candidate Alexi Giannoulias

2009-10-14T16:23:46Z

Contributing Reporting By Tim Taliaferro

President Obama's senior adviser met on Wednesday with one of the three Democratic candidates running for Illinois' likely-to-be open Senate seat.

Illinois State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias stopped by the White House during a trip to Washington to discuss his prospects for winning the party's nomination. Leaving the front lawn, he said he had met with Obama's close confidant, David Axelrod, to discuss the upcoming primary, which will take place in February 2010.

Giannoulias is the favored of three primary candidates running for the seat currently held (but likely to be vacated) by Sen. Roland Burris. A recent poll commissioned by his opponent, showed the state treasurer with the highest name identification of all candidates. Among voters, 26 percent said they supported his candidacy, which bested the 12 percent who backed former Chicago Urban League president Cheryle Robinson Jackson and the seven percent who supported David Hoffman, the former Chicago Inspector General and commissioner of the poll.

Giannoulias said he did not expect the White House to endorse in his race. But he did note that he was in a strong position to win the nomination, having raised $1.1 million in less than one month. The first-term treasurer currently has the endorsement of the SEIU, Illinois' largest union, and his $2.4 million in campaign cash includes none of his own personal wealth.

Regardless of who makes it out of the primary, the winning candidate will face obstacles to keep the seat in Democratic hands -- which seems likely to have been the point of the Axelrod meeting. The taint of former Gov. Rod Blagojevich and the ethics scandals that have surrounded Burris create obvious hurdles for the winning candidate. Meanwhile, the Republican running for the seat, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill), has strong name identification in the state. And in a poll conducted by Colorado-based Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies he currently holds a 42-35 lead over Giannoulias in a hypothetical general election -- with 23 percent of voters undecided.

That said, Kirk has issues of his own, stemming mainly from his time in Washington and his increasingly sharp opposition to Obama's agenda (on health care reform in particular).

To date, Giannoulias has cast himself as a disciple of sorts to the president, whom he considers a close personal friend and mentor. The treasurer, who played basketball professionally in Greece, was a frequent presence in Obama's pick-up basketball games during the presidential race. And when he announced his candidacy for U.S. Senate, he stressed that he was proud to run for the seat "once held by my friend, my mentor and my inspiration, President Barack Obama."

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Sen. Fritz Hollings: Creating Terrorism, Part 2

2009-10-08T15:04:24Z

Let's go back to 9/11 - the worst of terrorism. Osama bin Laden told us why. He said the U.S. support for Israel was a crusade or holy war against Islam. Osama made so much trouble in his native Saudi Arabia that he was expelled to Sudan. And making trouble there, he went to Afghanistan to train terrorists. Osama told us again and again of his cause for terrorism. He helped blow up our Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, but we didn't listen.

After we went into Kuwait, he blew up our embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, but we didn't listen. He then blew up the U.S.S. Cole, but we didn't listen. Finally, when he blew up the World Trade Towers and Pentagon, we listened. We knew immediately where to go after the culprit. But we dissembled as to his cause of the terrorism, saying that the Muslim world was jealous of our freedoms. And to obscure the cause, we lashed out at the world. President Bush characterized 9/11 as a War on Terror, telling the world you're either "for us or against us."

Terror is not a war but a tactic, a strategy. We don't call World War II the Blitzkrieg War, and the terrorism in other countries, like Indonesia, is for different reasons. Five years ago, I traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan with Senator Ted Stevens, the Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, and Senator John Warner, Chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

Our first stop was Jordan where we had a two hour conference with King Abdullah. As we stood to leave, the King asked Stevens and Warner to get on President Bush to settle the Israel-Palestinian conflict. At our stop in Kuwait, the Emir pleaded the importance of settling the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Again, after a two-hour conference in Pakistan with President Musharraf, as we stood to leave, he urged: "Settle the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and 85 per cent of the terrorism in the world will disappear."

The world knows our support of Israel is the cause of terrorism against the United States. But politicians in Washington can't acknowledge this. To confirm Osama's cause would have AIPAC coming down on your head as being anti-Semitic. But I can state it because I am pro-Semitic, pro-Israel, and have a thirty-eight year voting record to prove it. Washington politicians and the media continue to engage in the charade of a War on Terror.

Making believe that there is a War on Terror, we act like Afghanistan is our enemy. Afghanistan has never been the enemy of the United States. Osama bin Laden and the terrorists that trained there and trained to fly in the United States were from Saudi Arabia. On 9/11, we listed Al Qaeda in forty-five countries. While there is no War on Terror, potential terrorists are everywhere. The alleged terrorist recently arrested for trying to blow up New York has been a citizen of the United States for at least ten years.

We can't just "willy nilly" make war against a country that has terrorists. Afghanistan was our ally in Charlie Wilson's War when we ousted the Russians. We learned then that Afghans didn't like foreigners. Osama bin Laden's case against us is that the United States has a jihad against Islam. Invading Kuwait, invading Iraq, with military bases in Oman and Bahrain, with the U. S. Navy in the Persian Gulf, invading and making war in Afghanistan for eight years, and droning civilians in Pakistan, we prove Obama's case. After eight years, we are creating as much terrorism in Afghanistan as we are eliminating it. And we wonder why we're losing.

President Obama faces another Vietnam. I know. I hear the same concerns, the same frustrations, the same arguments. I was a bitter-ender. Making the motion in the Appropriations Committee for the last $500 million for the war in Vietnam, I argued that we couldn't let all those GIs die in vain. It took me some time to learn that more people are willing to die for a government different than democracy. I have been to Hanoi, visited John McCain's prison. The people are happy. I walked around the city unguarded at night, which I wouldn't dare do in Washington. Today, we have the friendliest of relations with Vietnam.

After eight years, the superpower is losing the war in Afghanistan. General McChrystal says to win we must stop killing civilians, train the people that are beating us, and nation-build by teaching warlords to like democracy and grow wheat instead of poppies. This in a country 90% illiterate, with a corrupt government, where they teach the youngsters in the Madrasah schools that we are the infidel. And in a Muslim country, where more important than freedom and democracy is tribe and religion. McChrystal could be successful and the next year there could be terrorists back in Afghanistan just like they are today in the United States. We've got to get serious about the cause of terrorism against us. We've got to make a more concerted effort for peace in the Mideast.

After ten years in Vietnam, a country of 16 million, 575 thousand GIs weren't enough to Vietnamize Vietnam. In Afghanistan, a country of 31 million, 40 thousand more troops will not be enough to Afghanize Afghanistan. I know the President has said that Afghanistan was a war of necessity. It's tough to acknowledge this mistake. But, if 40 thousand more troops are put there to fight, they are too few. If they are put there to die, they're too many.

P.S. to Axelrod: If he continues the war, he'll look weak. Stop the war. Stop creating terrorism.

Read more commentary by Senator Hollings at www.citizensforacompetitiveamerica.com. Creating Terrorism, Part One can be read here.