David Axelrod: the craftman behind Obama’s triumph

A lot has yet been said about David Axelrod and  his role in Obama’s perfectly ran presidential campaign.

David Axelrod has now to face a much tougher challenge: designing the White House and the US image for the four (or eight) years to come.

People who like Axelrod compare him to a Karl Rove who would have a soul; people who don’t like him believes he is just a cheap Karl Rove replica. It’s hard to be a spin doctor on Capitol Hill after the reign of Bush’s brain!!!

As Rove did, Axelrod wants to influence politics as much as he enjoys selling Obama’s message to the world. But I believe this is about the only thing the two men have in common.

Axelrod’s political choices throughout his career have shown that he is not only about winning elections.

Axelrod’s not an angel and he has shown during the campaign that he could get as tough as any other spin doctor.

But wether it is a matter of strategy or principles, Axelrod mostly differs from Rove on this very point: he designs positive political campaign based on his candidate’s strengths instead of focusing on his competitor’s weakness.

This is obviously a totally different way of “spinning”. Please don’t get me wrong, I’m also a “spinner”, not a priest. I don’t judge a communication strategy on its morality but on its efficiency.

What Axelrod showed to the world and in first place to Republican strategists, is that one can win an election running a clean and positive campaign.

I have the feeling it is in a way a consequence of Rove bold cynism. Americans got used to republican strategists tricks and fear-based strategies and were not fooled anymore.

Axelrod felt the situation had changed and got this genial inspiration: Yes We Can!