—Strother Martin in Cool Hand Luke If Karl Rove was George W. Bush’s architect, David Axelrod is Barack Obama’s Homer. A former newspaperman and Chicago-based political consultant, Axelrod is unmatched in his ability to help liberal candidates connect with voters through their personal stories. In the argot of Washington, Axelrod creates “narratives.” Candidate Obama presented Axelrod with a unique challenge. Not only was Obama a black man in a country that had never sent an African-American to the White House, he also had the most liberal voting record in the United States Senate. Axelrod feared that Obama would come across as a threatening figure to white, mainstream voters. To sell Obama to these voters, Axelrod performed a brilliant piece of political legerdemain. He turned Obama’s negatives into positives. He devised a narrative for Obama in which the candidate was presented as a black man who would heal America, not divide it, a moderate nonpartisan who would rescue America, not threaten it.
