Axelrod meets the press
Posted: Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:00 PM by Chuck Todd
From NBC/NJ's Athena Jones
Obama chief strategist David Axelrod met the press today while traveling with the candidate in New Hampshire. Here are some highlights of the Q&A.
Q: On 1982 ad and why advertise re computer literacy, emailing..
Axelrod - "We're doing advertising on a lot of things .."
"That's one ad of many ads, but it's a relevant ad. You know, the other day, the question is who's in touch and who's ready to move this country forward."
(Goes on to talk about education adviser, McCain not being up on economics)
Q: Why is he doing wo well? John McCain?
Axelrod - "I think...that this race is pretty much where it was right before the convention. Why isn't he doing better? Why after all this ballyhoo and all this fascination isn't he doing better than he was before the convention started? This race is basically a very close and competitive race going into the convention. It is now. It's likely to be right up to the end. I think the American people are very serious about this election. You can see it in the amount of eyeballs that were on the conventions. Huge audiences watching both conventions. I think you'll see huge amount- numbers of people watching the debates."
Q: on Sarah Palin's foreign policy/ Iraq and bridge answers etc and whether the American people should be concerned about her nomination
Axelrod - "I think the American people are very smart. The American people are paying attention and they're gonna make judgments about all these candidates. I think the positive thing is that she finally submitted to an interview. I look forward to her standing right where I'm standing here and spending time with all of you guys, but it's positive. I think all of the candidates should answer questions and they will and I think that'll be a really instructive process and I have great faith in the judgment of the American people."
Q On how Obama is preparing for the first debate..
Axelrod - "Well, he's obviously, I mean, first of all the debate is on foreign policy, it's something that he knows a great deal about. He's on the foreign relations committee. He's thought about these issues a lot. He's had the added benefit of being right on them, so that's always good going into a debate. Issues like whether we should have gone into Iraq in the first place. But he's reviewing materials. I'm sure Sen. McCain is as well and he'll be prepping, you know, he'll be doing the things that you do before a debate. He's very eager for the debate, though, I think it'll be good to stand side by side and talk about some of these issues. It's a lot more illuminating than some of the stuff that's been coming out of the McCain campaign lately."
Q: Back to that 1982 ad talking about email, are you worried about offending those people in America who aren't necessarily that computer literate, older voters? Or are you worried about voters thinking that's not a big issue to be talking about.
Axelrod - "Well, I think it goes beyond the computer literacy. It goes beyond you know sort of whether you have ideas that are forward-looking or backward-looking and that's the most important thing. I think most people understand that the president of the United States needs to be in touch and understand both what's going on in the lives of the American people and what we need to do to get this country moving again in the future and that includes being in touch with the technology that exists today. But it's kind of a metaphor for Sen. McCainks views. Sen. McCain is sitting on the back of the truck looking backwards and wants to repeat the same mistakes we've seen for the last eight years."
