Axelrod responds to Quote-gate II
Posted: Tuesday, February 19, 2008 8:09 PM by Mark Murray
From NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan
NBC/NJ got Obama strategist David Axelrod to respond to the latest report suggesting that Obama and Deval Patrick have shared even more language.
Below is the transcript of the interview...
Axelrod: I haven’t seen it, I can’t comment on it.
NBC/NJ: Well, I think Tapper insinuates that both these candidates are getting their language from you.
Axelrod: Well, that’s nonsense. Barack Obama and Deval Patrick are the two best writers I have ever encountered in politics. And one of the great strengths of their politics and their campaign and their public life is that they express themselves so beautifully and so genuinely. I mean, so, I just emphatically reject that. I admire what they both do, and I’ll make a contribution here or there but nothing that I’ve seen is nothing that I’ve contributed to. The whole riff about just words was not mine at all.
NBC/NJ: Patrick has said that he helped consult on the J-J speech, because they exchange language so much with each other. What’s authentic?
Axelrod: Well, authentic is whether you’re speaking the words that you believe in. That’s what authenticity is. The fact is that these guys share a view about how politics work, a point of view particularly about how politics should work; about the empowerment of people; about the power of inspiration; about the power of hope. These are central themes to both their candidacies and both their lives frankly.
NBC/NJ: But David, if it’s just a belief in words, shouldn’t it matter who those words are coming from too?
Axelrod: Let me ask you a question: Do you think anybody in America needs someone to contribute words for him? He’s written two brilliant books. He gave one of the great convention speeches of all time, which he wrote himself. And everybody sees him on the stump... You can’t have it both ways. You can’t at the same time say, 'Well, all the guy can do is give a great speech,' and then say on the other hand, 'Oh I don’t know maybe he’s not as great a speaker.' The fact this the guy is phenomenal writer. And he expresses himself very, very well. So is Deval Patrick. They’re good friends. They do consult with each other they do share things, there are elements of Barack in what Deval says. There are elements of Deval in what Barack says. That’s the nature of their relationship. But I don’t anybody should in any way penalize them. I wouldn’t challenge their authenticity. They’re two of the most authentic people I’ve met in my life. That’s one of the reasons they do well.
John McCormick, Chicago Tribune: inaudible…
Axelrod: I’m sure he heard Deval say that because he heard Deval speak many times during the 2006 campaign. It goes right to the heart of what these campaigns are about.
McCormick: If I look at a great piece of writing I may use it as an example of what I want to do with a piece, but I tend to change a bunch of words.
Axelrod: But the difference is that you’re not making [is] you’re not writing. This is not a literary contest; this is not a newspaper. He’s making a political argument, and the political argument was very much the same in both campaigns -- which is that this is not about him, it's about the that people need to do this for themselves. It's not about the advancement of one candidate. This was a central theme of the 2006 campaign. You know it was it was that was essentially what 'Yes We Can' was about in 2004. You know Deval embraced some of that in 2006. These guys are kindred political spirits they believe in the same kind of political philosophy, and Deval is expressing it there.
McCormick: And you maintain you essentially do virtually no writing for both of them?
Axelrod: No, I didn’t say that I did no writing. I may suggest things here and there. First of all, I’m not the speech writer in this campaign, this is a ... I can’t tell this was a written line or not. Barack speaks extemporaneously 90% of the time ,and you’re with him so you know that. Ugh, and to the extant that he doesn’t it's [speechwriter Jon] Favreau who writes the speeches.
McCormick: Is he held to higher standard? should he be because he’s a great speaker?
Axelrod: I don’t think the people are out here. I don’t think the American voter, they are interested in the concept that’s being expressed. They’re interested in the concept that’s being expressed and the concept being expressed is completely consonant with the campaign Barack has been running. Um, this is not, they’re not, he’s not a journalist. He’s not offering these words for literally purposes. He’s trying to make this argument for literary purposes; he’s using these words to make a political argument and the argument is what they’re going to respond to.
NBC/NJ: But isn’t this partly that the argument should be his? The words should be his?
Axelrod: But the argument certainly is his!
NBC/NJ: Not right now. It’s Deval Patrick’s.
Axelrod: You are trying to meld words and an argument. The argument is totally, totally consonant with everything he’s said and done in this campaign. If you look back, we could sit down and go through every speech he’s said in this campaign and everything he’s said in this campaign is completely consistent with everything you just played for me. So yes, if it were a different concept, and didn’t represent what Barack has said in a hundred different ways in a hundred different places then I think you could say that he was expressing someone else’s ideas. This idea was central to both their politics. So no I don’t think ... that’s a valid point.
