Meeting the Man Who Made Obama

David Axelrod is a man with a hefty CV. For some, it's the sort of CV that leaves you in silence. For others, it's the sort of CV that leaves you wondering if anyone has had a better view of life in the corridors of powers over the past half a decade. In fact, for some, David 'The Axe' Axelrod might be the most influential man that you've never heard of.

You'd be forgiven for thinking that with a name like that, he was a one-time wrestler or darts player. Yet Axelrod is in fact the former Senior Advisor to President Obama and brains behind both the 2008 'Yes We Can' election campaign and subsequent re-election. Now, ousted by the team he brought to power, Axelrod, along with the Obama re-election campaign, is the subject of a new book by Richard Wolffe.

An integral part of the 2012 campaign and yet already 'former' Senior Advisor? Some turnaround. Wolffe's book has been billed as lifting the lid on Axelrod's 'axing' from the cabinet. With potential revelations over this issue in the offing, and the recent fiasco in Washington that has seen the self-styled 'Greatest Democracy on Earth' left in meltdown, American politics is at a fascinating crossroads. When I discovered 'The Axe' was delivering a keynote speech in my adopted home city, I simply had to go.

Entering a ballot run by the University of Toronto with no reply one way or the other, I'd given up hope of attending one day before the event. My disappointment was premature, as a missive landed in my inbox informing me of my attendance. With apologies submitted over missed classes (a mere five weeks into term?! I'm a changed man!), I made my way on the subway to the Metro Convention Centre in downtown Toronto.

In truth, Axelrod's speech was a touch anodyne. Not dull by any stretch of the imagination- American politics never is- but you willed for him to stray from the straight and narrow. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given his long-lasting friendship with the President, Axelrod refused to so much as hint at a criticism of Barack Obama. The tone was very much 'look how hard Barack is trying against those nasty Republicans and those crazy Tea Party folk'. It's not long since the Axe was axed, and as such, he may not be removed enough from the policies to criticise them, but even so, his unwavering defence was a bit of a disappointment.

The title of the lecture being 'America's Future and Leadership Lessons', Axelrod emphasised the importance of being a good leader rather than a popular one, someone who gets things done. Perhaps getting his excuses in early, Axelrod drew comparisons between Obama and Harry Truman, a President who left office with low approval rates, but has since been viewed as a 'go-getter'. Our speaker praised Obama's consistency, stating that he has stayed true to his opinions all through his political career, and would not cater to the opinion polls.

Nor, Axelrod said, would he back down to what he called 'the Rush Limbaugh constituents', the far right of the Republican party. On more than one occasion, he emphasised that Obama was an expert player in the 'long game', and it was the responsibility of federal politicians to do what they felt was right, rather than ceding to what the districts wanted.

In amongst the matey anecdotes and neutral generalisations, Axelrod delivered a few acerbic blows in the direction of the Republicans. On the Washington shut-down, he was withering towards those who delayed the healthcare bill despite Obama's re-election- 'It's called democracy... the clock is ticking'; on the recent Republican factions, he claimed that the GOP was in a 'cul-de-sac' and didn't know the way out; and on the race for the 2016 White House, he suggested, with reference to the increasingly ubiquitous Texan Senator, that the Republicans were preparing a 'Cruz Missile'.

One questioner, delivering a heart-felt plea to tighten up gun control, asked when 'you Americans are going to catch up with us', to much applause and laughter. You could sense Axelrod's frustration- yet another example of Obama's willingness to make things happen, yet being hamstrung by the 'screwy' political structures (Axelrod's words, not mine). Guns, to the Axe-man, are 'a blight on our country'. Yet, interestingly, a perspective that I had not heard before, he drew on the gun tradition of America, particularly with regards to hunters, as a defence of his nation, and then delivered the retort 'we've got our virtues'. I'm not sure the hunting argument particularly passes muster, particularly when it comes to things like the possession of uzis in downtown Chicago- as my Politics of the USA seminar tutor said last year, how many deer have you seen with a bullet-proof vest?

Refreshingly, Axelrod was highly complimentary of my generation. Before you raise eyebrows cynically, this was far from a student-dominated event, independent from the university and instead filled with businessmen and women. So much so that I was probably amongst the 5% of the audience not wearing a suit. He claimed our generation was the most socially-minded since the 1960s, and that he was now dedicating his life to engineering that spirit into politics, and persuading young people to run. The message? Find a campaign that you believe in, and help with it.

But what of his ousting from Obama's inner circle? Again, I'm afraid, an example of the anodyne questioning. I was up in the pleb seats with my jeans and t-shirt, as far away from the questioners' microphone as they could put me, and I'm not even sure I'd have had the balls to ask, but he did, without prompting, refer genuinely to 'my good friend David Plouffe'- one of those, if you believe the stories, at the heart of the Machiavellian axing. A pointed reference, no doubt about it.

These events are often plagued by embellished anecdotes about characters we think we know from the public sphere, but this next story made me smile:

'When we were discussing Obamacare, and just how far we could push it, one of the aides asked President Obama how lucky he was feeling. Barack replied "my name is Barack Hussein Obama, I'm a black guy, and I'm President of the United States. I wake up every day and feel lucky!"'

This event, it turns out, was in support of the Reena Foundation, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. The Reena Foundation helps people with developmental disabilities. Several truly heart-warming speeches were made before and after Axelrod's keynote address, and it is only right, having been the recipient of a free ticket, that I put the link to the charity up here.