David Axelrod, President Obama’s top campaign strategist, dismissed Herman Cain as a presidential contender and told Morning Joe to watch for Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, and former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass., “duking it out” for the Republican nomination.
Axelrod appeared with his wife, Susan, on Morning Joe to discuss their Cure Epilepsy organization, but the interview opened with some talk about the Republican primary. Axelrod opened his commentary with a laugh line, calling Cain “an intriguing personality,” before suggesting that Cain’s plan would raise taxes on “poor and middle class people” to as high as 27 percent.
Axelrod then said that “when you look at the resources and you look at the standings, I think Perry and Romney are likely to be duking it out at some point.”
“The reason I raise some of these issues about Gov. Romney is that other people weren’t raising them and it’s important to focus on them,” Axelrod said of Obama’s early attacks on Romney. “He has a history gong back 20 years when he was a moderate to liberal Republican in Massachusetts: pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-environmental protection, obviously pro-health reform, anti-Ronald Reagan,” Axelrod said, recalling that “[Romney] said he was an independent during the Reagan years. And now he’s done a 180 on all those things.”
Axelrod can hardly be taken seriously when expressing concern that Republican primary voters have not heard about Romney’s moderate to liberal past, but his comments do point to Republican primary vulnerabilities that Romney has. The rest of the GOP field, however, has not exploited these weaknesses. The other Republican candidates have spent more time attacking each other than Romney, recognizing that if any single candidate emerges as an alternative to Romney, that person wins the nomination.
That primary-wide strategy, along with Romney’s strong debate performances, has left Romney as the frontrunner. His path to the nomination could parallel his path to debate victories as long as Bachmann, Perry, Santorum et al hammer at each other.
Here’s the video of Axelrod talking about Romney and Cain.
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