Chief Obama strategist David Axelrod posted a cutting photo tweet implicitly targeting Republican hopeful Mitt Romney. The photo featured President Obama riding in his car with his Portuguese water dog, Bo, with the caption “How loving owners transport their dogs.” Oh snap!

In the midst of all the hoopla over NBC’s big Republican debate, George Stephanopoulos quietly returned to his old position as anchor of ABC’s This Week, and already he’s made some news with today’s appearance by former White House advisor David Axelrod. A new book out about President Obama details tensions between First Lady Michelle Obama and White House staffers, which led to one advisor cursing her out during a meeting. Axelrod confirmed today that this incident did take place.

Surging Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum downplayed President Obama‘s role in the good news that the unemployment rate fell to 8.5% in December, the lowest level in three years. According to a tweet by Politico‘s Dave Catanese, Santorum claimed unemployment was dropping as a result of widespread “optimism that Republicans will take the White House.”

In a bad sign for Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney‘s presidential hopes, senior Obama campaign strategist David Axelrod set his sights on current GOP frontrunner Newt Gingrich today, a rare deviation from their constant whipping of Romney. At a press conference at the DNC, Axelrod told reporters “the higher a monkey climbs on a pole, the more you can see his butt.’ So, you know, the Speaker is very high on the pole right now and we’ll see how people like the view.”

On Sunday’s Meet the Press, senior adviser to President Obama‘s reelection campaign David Axelrod was asked by David Gregory to respond to NJ Gov. Chris Christie‘s rant about President Obama earlier this week. Axelrod pointed out that Christie endorsee Mitt Romney opposed saving the auto industry, telling Gregory, “I don’t think he’s in a position to talk about who was a bystander.”

Mitt Romney‘s ”Believe in America” ad has generated a lot of coverage for its dishonest use of a quote from President Obama, and a great discussion on the absurd lengths the media take to avoid calling a lie a “lie,” but one obvious theme has been missed. The out-of-context tactic that the Romney campaign unapologetically used in the ad is yet another in a series of reactions to Bill Burton‘s sustained offensive on Romney.

On CNN’s State of the Union today, former Obama advisor David Axelrod expressed his frustration on Congressional inaction on many important issues related to the economy and, more specifically, the inability of Republicans to come together with the president on issues they normally agree with.

On Sunday morning’s Meet The Press, host David Gregory told his panel that senior White House adviser David Plouffe “broke new ground” in attacking GOP establishment presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as having “no core.”

Republican panelist Mike Murphy thought Plouffe owed Romney an apology, while Tom Brokaw pointed out that “the record is there,” but they’re all really late to the party here.

Early on in his appearance on Tuesday’s Morning Joe, Obama campaign chief strategist David Axelrod quickly steered the conversation around to his campaign’s relentless, laserlike focus on former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney. Asked to assess new GOP frontrunner Herman Cain, Axelrod told host Joe Scarborough that Cain is just the latest indication of Romney’s weakness as a candidate, and coyly dropped in a reference to Romney’s infamous dog-on-the-roof road trip. It’s going to be a ruff campaign.

Obama campaign advisor David Axelrod appeared on This Week today, and when he was asked twice about the impact the Occupy Wall Street protests could potentially have on President Obama‘s reelection chances, he admitted to being uncertain of how much political sway the movement could end up having.

In a sign of the lightning-fast times, President Obama‘s chop-busting exchange with Fox News’ Ed Henry at Thursday’s joint press conference is the star of a new Mitt Romney ad that was released later that same day, and was “exclusively previewed” on Chuck Todd‘s The Daily Rundown this morning. The ad cobbles together bytes of the President and his advisers saying Romney’s name, and as the ad’s title suggests, poses them as a sign that the President is “Nervous” about Romney’s candidacy.

“The President has a package, and the package works together,” said top Obama strategist David Axelrod ABC’s Good Morning America, insisting, as the White House adamantly has, that congress pass the America Jobs Act quickly and in whole. “We want them to act now on this package,” he said. “We are not in negotiation to break up the package. And it’s not an a la carte menu. It’s a strategy to get this country moving.”

On MSNBC’s Morning Joe, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele pressed senior Obama adviser David Axelrod on the Politico piece that suggested Team Obama’s strategy would be to paint GOP hopeful Mitt Romney as “weird.”

Axelrod called the Politico story “garbage,” and agreed with Steele that any Obama campaign staffer who used such an attack against Romney would be fired. For now, at least, we’re still talking about how “weird” Romney is.

Don’t count on President Obama’s campaign advisor David Axelrod being eager to return to Face the Nation anytime soon. First Bob Schieffer persistently wondered why Obama should be re-elected when the economic situation is “worse” today than it was when Obama first took office. And later in the same interview, Schieffer refuses to let Axelrod blame Republicans for being the sole cause of the S&P downgrade.

Bob Schieffer was enjoyably prickly today as he interviewed President Obama’s campaign advisor David Axelrod. After playing a clip of Obama from the beginning of his presidency telling Matt Lauer that three years later Americans will be able to determine whether he deserves a second term, Schieffer posed the question rather bluntly to Axelrod. “Is this going to be a one-term presidency?”

You can’t please everyone: nearly two years after former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich became the face of disgraceful political mischief worldwide, the ethics lecturer and warrior poet has become so predictable and trite that even Chicago media– who actually have to deal with the circumstances of his governorship, are bored with his current trial.

Despite Donald Trump being the loudest and most public face of the “Birther” movement, David Axelrod, advisor for President Obama’s re-election campaign, was quick to point out to David Gregory that it was actually the news media that forced Obama to release the long-form birth certificate and not Trump. Although Axelrod was happy to allow Trump a “little ego boost,” sarcastically saying he needs that.

Does David Axelrod think Sarah Palin‘s going to run in 2012? Perhaps, but only if she decides being president would be better than the “good gig” she has “being Sarah Palin.”

Axelrod, one of the architects of Barack Obama‘s victory in 2008, sat down for an interview with CNN’s John King, who asked about a possible Palin run for the GOP nomination. The answer was perfectly politically noncommittal:

Rush Limbaugh’s discussion of the Egyptian protests on today’s show featured a lot of great quotes. He the “state-run, drive-by media” of supporting the overthrow of the Egyptian government without considering the circumstances as well as asking why they aren’t giving George W. Bush credit for predicting democracy would spread like “wildfire.” Most notably, however, he asked what President Obama was doing at a party while Egypt was burning.

This morning on Fox News Sunday David Axelrod, one of President Obama’s top advisers, told host Chris Wallace that he intends to leave the White House in “late winter, early spring” of 2011.

He plans to return to Chicago then to begin work on the President’s re-election campaign for 2012.

It is a poorly-kept secret that President Obama is a poker aficionado. If the administration’s new posture on the soon-to-expire Bush tax cuts are any indication, he’s a lousy one. Senior adviser David Axelrod, in an interview with Huffington Post, has signaled that the administration is all but ready to fold the strongest hand they’re likely to get in post-midterm Washington. While the President favors extending the middle class portion of the Bush tax cuts, while allowing those for the wealthiest Americans to expire, Axelrod has already resorted to the fallback position of a temporary extension for the rich. While that’s probably the best outcome, the timing of this move is bad politics, and will lead to bad policy.

O’Reilly Factor resident media critic Bernie Goldberg noticed something strange this weekend: traditionally “liberal” media outlets are beginning to lash out at other liberals. Take, for example, SNL‘s skewering of liberal Gloria Allred, or CBS’ Bob Schieffer going after David Axelrod this Sunday. Are these incidents a sign of a trend?, asks Bill O’Reilly. No, Goldberg declares, it’s not the beginning of a trend, but the end of one: “The slobbering has ended because the magic is gone.”

Top Obama adviser David Axelrod was on David Letterman last night and explained Tuesday’s presidential seal gaffe on thusly: “You know we’ve been here almost two years, five hundred speeches probably, never happened before and I can only think of one thing…witchcraft.” Shazam! He also spoke about Fox News, Sarah Palin, and the Birthers.

The 2010 Midterms are in exactly eight weeks. Considering the tone of the current national political conversation one shudders to think of the sort of headlines we may find ourselves posting eight weeks from now. In the meantime, behold David Axelrod who is launching the ‘official’ midterm season by declaring that a GOP Congress will be more extreme than the Bush administration. Tone-deaf anyone?

Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd wasted no time on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown this morning before pressing Obama’s senior advisor David Axelrod to explain the White House’s reaction to a federal court decision striking down California’s same-sex marriage ban. “I think the American public could be forgiven if they’re a little confused about where the president stands on all of this,” Guthrie said, laying out Obama’s opposition to same-sex marriage and perceived ambivalence in criticizing Prop 8.