David Axelrod, chief political strategist for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and former White House political adviser, defended Jeremiah Wright on Tuesday evening in a speech in Thousand Oaks, CA. Axelrod described the initial news reports in 2008 on Obama’s long-time family pastor and mentor as “ninety seconds of vitriol plucked from thirty years of sermons by some enterprising opposition researcher.” Recording was not permitted in the Fred Kavli Theater, but Axelrod’s remarks on Wright are an exact quote, written down and tweeted immediately upon delivery. Asked to describe the highlights of his service in the White House, Axelrod cited the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”; the killing of Osama bin Laden, the nomination of two new liberal Supreme Court justices; the resumption of stem cell research, the passage of the Lily Ledbetter Act (extending the statute of limitations for equal-pay lawsuits); and the vote to pass the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ObamaCare.
Almost apologetically, the moderator asked Axelrod to comment on Jodi Kantor’s new and controversial book, The Obamas, which has alleged that First Lady Michelle Obama clashed with the president’s senior advisers. While saying that he generally respected Kantor’s work, Axelrod claimed that Kantor had not spoken to the “best” sources, and described the role of the First Lady in the administration as a positive one.
