The first time I saw this guy, or I should say, the first time I paid attention to him was on Hardball.  Joe Trippi, Mark Penn and David Axelrod were involved in a drug war in which Trippi (Edwards Campaign) jumped all over Penn in defense of the Obama campaign.

To the right of the screen stood this guy who looks like the guy that talks your head off about how cool the 70's were.  Sure you agree, but you think "dude, get out of the bicentennial already."

I remember thinking, "this is the guy running the Obama Campaign?"  "They're doomed".  Really, take a look at this pic, note the strong contrast, and remember, he stood back and let Trippi fight the battle for "his" candidate.  

Now looking back I get it, this guy is the King of the "Rope a Dope."  He was the kid who was really good at in a crowd, reaching around, plucking your ears and acting like he didn't do it.  Basically, he's slick, a wolf in sheep's clothing.  You don't see him coming and before you know it you've lost an election.

What's being lost in this nauseating "Should Hillary Clinton be Vice President" coverage, is what actually happened here.  Since 1992 the Republicans have been trying to take the Clintons down, and indeed they finally did with an impeachment.  And that didn't even work.  Some in the Democratic party have tried to take the Clintons down, try, try, try to no avail, the Clintons are too well versed, entrenched and powerful.

And then comes this Black guy, from Chicago.... with a Muslim name.  And behind him is your 10th grade shop teacher. 

He put together the perfect campaign and did something no one else has been able to do.  Take down the Clintons.  He and Obama devised a plan on the ground to start a silent but deadly movement while everyone, and I mean everyone in the media was crowning Hillary Clinton the next President.  Then when his candidate won the very first round of actual voting, he kept his candidate cool, his team calm, and let everyone else go buck wild around him.  

After working for the campaigns of John Edwards, Tom Vilsak, Hillary Clinton and Elliot Spitzer, this Chi-town Jew found his perfect union, which is one reason I find it funny that there are claims of Jewish problems with the Obama campaign.  These two harken back to Sidney Poitier and his league of Jewish support.  They helped the actor rise to the pinnacle of the acting profession in a time in which a Black man had no business and no chance of being a dignified character on the silver screen.  And that quiet strong dignity carried over off the screen, a perfect union. This Axelrod/Obama union is a complete circle to a time that promised respect and equality, and showed us how to do it.  This is how Axelrod ran this campaign and this team.

I think it's fairly certain that Axelrod will go down in history as one of the political genius's of all time.  What he has accomplished and how he accomplished it is truly astounding.  The name Clinton is like the name Santa Claus, everyone knows it, no matter where you are.  This quiet unassuming guy in the background effectively overshadowed the giant and took it down with a beanstalk.

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