This morning, The Post is launching its “Newsmakers” series, in which our reporters interview powerful people in the news. First up: The Fix interviews David Axelrod, adviser to President Obama. We’ll be live-blogging it here for anyone who couldn’t make it out of bed.
11:20 a.m.: What is the 2012 campaign about? “The 2008 campaign was about changing Washington towards an end, not as an end in itself,” Axelrod says. “The end is: How do we create an economy in 21st century that makes good on that basic American compact, that you can retire with some security, that you can make a better life for your kids? .?.?. It’s a long-term project.” So, in essence, he’s saying the 2012 campaign will be about the same thing as 2008: “We’re not going to reinvent ourselves or reinvent the campaign or the president.” And that’s a wrap! Thanks for everyone who came or followed along.
11:14 a.m.: Axelrod says that 33 Republican governors are trying to create tougher voting requirements and that most of those measures are aimed at young people.
11:10 a.m.: One in four Americans under 21 is Hispanic; is this a dependable Democratic constituency or not? Axelrod: “I’m not going to characterize any community as a dependable vote.” But he thinks Democrats will do well with Hispanic votes next election. The Republican Party has diverged from former President Bush on immigration, he says, and “the signals to Hispanic Americans have not been very positive.” He doesn’t think “dissing a large segment of Americans is a winning strategy.”
11 a.m.: Audience question: Will the economy hurt Obama in 2012? Axelrod says that we were very close to a depression and that Obama had to make tough decisions to prevent that. He notes that the stock market has doubled since March 2009. He says that he was there during the decision to bail out the automakers and that the president knew it would not be politically popular, “but it was the right thing to do.” He says if people sense we’re moving in the right direction, if the trend line in unemployment is good, they will give the administration credit.
10:55 a.m.: Axelrod says he likes Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) personally but was disappointed by his decision on a law defunding Planned Parenthood in his state.
10:51 a.m.: Axelrod praises former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, a Republican, and says he was “willing to buck the tide of his own party” on some issues and “was quite complimentary of what the president was doing” when he was in China. Axelrod also has some nice words for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (R), saying “someday, he will reclaim ownership with pride” of the health-care law he signed.
10:40 a.m.: Axelrod addresses the formation of a new Democratic group that does not disclose all of its donors. The president has spoken out against such groups. “We’re playing touch and they’re playing tackle,” Axelrod says. He argues that while he would love legislation mandating transparency in donations to be passed tomorrow, “it’s unrealistic to expect that you’re going to have one set of players play by one set of rules and the other side play with another. You have to have one set of rules that everybody abides by. If one side is not and is tremendously advantaged by it, it has a tangible impact on our politics.”
10:33 a.m.: Chris kicks off by asking why President Obama felt that he needed to release his long-form birth certificate and whether doing so elevated a conspiracy theory that was better left ignored. “I don’t think we could have elevated it much beyond where it was,” Axelrod says. “And it required that elevation to put it to rest.” Axelrod says it was “an absurd decision” for networks to juxtapose Donald Trump and President Obama the morning of the birth certificate news conference. He also says “polls at this point are about as useful as a farmer’s almanac.”
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