Lightning Round: David Axelrod on the 2016 Field (So Far)
On Hillary Clinton: The key is to "be authentic, not look authentic." And she also has to run like an insurgent; the problem with the Clinton campaign in 2007, Axelrod added, was that Clinton was "entombed by this inevitability, and she was cautious." When she lost the Iowa caucus, she came out swinging and became a better candidate.
"Many of the people who I recruited for the Obama campaign are now in the leadership of her emerging campaign which gives me great hope," Axelrod said. "And I think that there's every sign to me that she's going to come out of the shoot very strong."
On Chris Christie: "I've always said that it may be charming to flip someone off in Bayonne but it's not in Keokuk [Iowa]... I just think his style is not right for a national race."
On Scott Walker: "I'm reserving judgement on Scott Walker," Axelrod said. "He has the advantage of being someone who can straddle both the base of the party and some of the center-right establishment Republicans who admire him as a governor. And running for President is so hard, so "you don't know how people are going to perform under that kind of pressure, because you don't get that kind of pressure as the governor of a relatively small state."
On Rand Paul: He has tried to broaden his appeal, in part by taking libertarian positions on the NSA and on drug legalization. "But it's not yet clear whether Paul is "solid enough" to be President of the United States.
Jeb Bush is "literally the elephant in the room... If he sticks to his commitment on immigration reform and education and doesn't bow to the party's base, I think that he could be very formidable." His reach into the Latino community could make him competitive in Colorado, Nevada and Florida. "Whether he could survive the primary process is still an open question."
