David Axelrod recently got a gift in the mail.

It was a box of political pins that captured the unique role that the former top

Obama strategist has carved out for himself as a 2024 political commentator.

The message on the pins,

pricks for Biden.

As a lot of you probably know, Axelrod has used his many platforms to podcasts, CNN punditry, and regular interviews with political reporters,

to offer a lot of unvarnished advice for and criticism of Joe Biden. In November he suggested

that Biden think long and hard about running for re-election at all. He has been

withering about Biden's skills as a candidate and

communicator. He has been deeply concerned about the president's age.

Unlike other Democrats in the anti-bed wedding set,

Axe has been clear that the party should be freaked out by the polls.

All of this has made Axelrod a bit of an irritant to the president. Thus the joke pins. My

colleague Jonathan Martin reported in the fall that Biden recently used the

p-word to describe Axelrod. Mike Murphy, the Republican strategist who co-host

their excellent Hacks on Tap podcast with Axelrod, recently joked that if

Biden were to get too close to acts, the president may end up convicted of manslaughter.

I mean, hell, Biden could be looking at 10 years if he gets within three feet of you.

Axelrod retorted.

I'm too quick for him. I sat down with David, who I have known for a long time at the

Hotel Fort Des Moines on Wednesday morning, and we discussed his critiques of the Biden operation,

the parallels with 2012 when he was in charge of strategy for the Obama re-election,

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