The American Spectator

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Pre-Coronation News

By Robert Stacy McCain on 7.15.08 @ 3:39PM

The Christian Science Monitor lavishes praise on Team Obama honcho David Axelrod:

As political scientists dissect just what happened between last fall and this spring, and how a junior senator with a funny name and little experience on the national stage was able to dethrone the Clintons, much of the credit will likely go to Axelrod - and to what is a pairing of candidate and adviser who are unusually well suited to each other.
He's Obama's answer to Karl Rove, the big-picture architect of the campaign who always seems to have his pulse on what will resonate with voters. But he's also, say colleagues, a rarity among political advisers: someone who still carries the idealism that got him started in the business.

• What happened in the Democratic primary campaign has already been thoroughly dissected by journalists and bloggers, without assistance from "political scientists." The fact that Hillary was sailing along fine until Tim Russert tripped her up on Elliot Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens is conveniently omitted from the CSM tongue-bath testimonial to Axelrod's brilliance.
• Obama is still merely the Democratic nominee, and Axelrod is thus so far proven a genius only equal to the masterminds behind the campaigns of George McGovern, Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, et al.

If hubris had a scent, the Obama campaign would be reeking of it, and you know it's getting bad when even such an enthusiastic Obamaphile as Andrew Sullivan has begun to complain of the aroma. Media adulation like the CSM profile of Axelrod is unlikely to deflate the supernova egos at Hope HQ. If their man ever slips a few points behind McCain in the Gallup poll, Axelrod will likely be surprised at how quickly he's demoted to the rank of ex-genius.

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