Whatever cut David Axelrod and David Plouffe get, they earned every penny of it. This was a brilliant campaign that will should become a Harvard Business Case Study. Brand Obama!

If Al Gore wants to know why he isn’t President – regardless of the Florida mess in 2000 – he only needs to observe and study the Obama campaign. It was forceful, timely, skillful, and without error. If that was Axelrod’s doing, regardless of his paycheck, the country owes him a great debt of thanks for relieving the nation of the monsters of the Republican right. THANKS MR. AXELROD.

I gave and gave to Obama. I hope Plouffe and Axelrod get a huge chunk because they deserve it. This campaign will be studied for decades. It was bottom-up, cogent, on course and a pleasure to join. It signed, sealed and delivered Obama to America and the world!!!

Axelrod himself should be an entire political science course. Long before this election, and even before his entree into politics, he was a reporter with an uncanny sensibility and ability to go to the heart of issues. His brilliant strategizing in electing Harold Washington as Mayor of Chicago is in itself a prime example of outside the box coalition building. And his extension of that model to the national stage has helped to BaROCK the world.

Change is out the window already.

There is no apparent change in a character like Rahm Emanuel.

He supported the war in Iraq and is a one-sided advocate for Israel. And he is definitely not on the left on economic matters.

David Axelrod has ice flowing through those veins. In the midst of the Rev. Whatsisname drama, I saw the man on Hardball. The tough, pointy questions bounced off of him without his displaying so much as a wince or a raised eybrow. Intelligence and calm under fire are what this guy has for breakfast.
p.s. I could only afford to give $20.00 like the saying goes, it came back 10,000 fold.

I gave several hundred dollars, and I don’t begrudge anybody one red cent. They got my guy elected, that’s what matters.

I probably ended up giving $200-250. What a pleasure it was to give to such an amazing campaign. Axelrod is one cool character, hard nosed and practical and genuine. He reminds me of the classic newspaper editor.

Thank you Mr. Axelrod and Mr. Plouffe. I hope my several donations all went to you and I am delighted to be contributing to your paychecks…talk about well-earned!

Fine by me if Axelrod takes home every cent I donated- THANK YOU FOR MY NEW PRESIDENT!

Fine by me if Axelrod takes home every cent I donated- he deserves it. THANK YOU for getting our guy elected!

If the two Davids split the $700 mil. that would be fine by me. Whatever they earned is worth every single cent. In one day, we regained our dignity as a nation and the renewed respect of the world. The election of Barack Obama accomplished more for the concept of democracy around the world than any bomb or bullet or military ever could. Well worth every single dollar I donated! I can’t wait to get to work with our new President to get this country back on the right track!

David Axelrod is direct, clear sighted, and intelligent. Skills like his are rare. He deserves kudos and I’m certain Barach Obama
understands why he won the election having persons such as Axelrod and Emanuel in charge.

David Axelrod is direct, clear sighted, and intelligent. Skills like his are rare. He deserves kudos and I’m certain Barach Obama
understands why he won the election having persons such as Axelrod and Emanuel in charge.

i think they got 10%

Well, now it’s official – AIPAC will continue to make our foreign policy with these guys in charge!

Globull,
And they wouldn’t under McCain? Get real! Jimmy Carter found out the political disaster that ensues when a US politician opposes their agenda. Face it, we are (and will continue to be) more pro-Israel than Israel.

Axelrod gets 70 mil and the workers don’t get paid. Glad Obama is about change!
Indianapolis – Lines were long and tempers flared Wednesday not to vote but to get paid for canvassing for Barack Obama. Several hundred people are still waiting to get their pay for last-minute campaigning. Police were called to the Obama campaign office on North Meridian Street downtown to control the crowd.

The line was long and the crowd was angry at times.

Wow, Axelrod gets $70 million. That’s pretty impressive and very fortunate for him that he will get paid this year as opposed to next year when Obama’s tax hikes will kick in. But I’m sure he truly believes in the message of “Change” and will write a nice fat check to the government to make up for paying so little in taxes on the money.

Can you even put a price on what Mr. Axelrod accomplished? True, it would not have happened without volunteers like myself, but he did it. The $70 million is a fair price to pay for all the good that Obama being in office will do both here and abroad.

Just going to point out no one is getting 70 million or 700 million. What this article talks about is how much of ALL THE MONEY they made over the 2 years theyre taking.

People should pay attention to what they read. Axelrod and Plouffe ran a BRILLIANT campaign and deserve to be paid what they get paid. But they probabley have already been paid.

It’s their next job they will get paid more. Im sure they had a contract and dont get any of the donations. All the money left over from that goes into an overall political fund for future campaigns.

These “change is out the window” because of one appointment folks really need to get a grip. Governance is hard and will require many kinds of personalities, skills, experiences. And anyone who thought that an Obama presidency wouldn’t be pro-Israel just wasn’t listening.

I helped fund raise close to $100000 for Obama this year and gave generously of my own resources, but if Axelrod gets paid $7 million much less $70 million, I will never give Obama another dime.

I volunteered without pay and was thrilled to do it! I donated repeatedly and was thrilled to do it. People throw figures around without any context and are already mudslinging. They didn’t spend the money at Saks, Neiman Marcus, and do meetings in bath towels, and they got the result that is best for this country in these troubling times. I am good with that. If you aren’t, don’t donate again. That’s democracy. The country is energized, mobilized, fired up and ready to go! That’s priceless, you dig?

with the rahm emanuel appointment it appears dnc chair dean’s ‘50 state strategy’ is kaput. the congressman from illinois was adamantly against the dean strategy and was party to a shouting match with dnc apparachitick donna brazile in the halls of the dnc around the concept. rahm felt money should be targeted to certain, needy states only. others opted to roll with dean’s point of view….a spread the wealth thing. well, you go rahm, yes you can!!

holy mackerel! this here gonna be another Clinton in tat white house… when is it gonna end!

Foolish talks, go and ax your own campaign and see who will donate for you, not so serious rollingstone!!!

I donated too and you damn well bet I expect Axelrod to get paid. As for the amount, keep in mind that this was not a Monday – Friday 8-5 job. This was around the clock everday, all day, for 21 months.

I was happy to give to the Obama campaign and I gave til it hurt. Sorry to hear that David Axelrod os going to walk away with–$70 million??!!? That’s obscene. Takes a bit of the luster off the campaign and the triumph of the win. Nobody “deserves” to make that kind of money. Lots of people every day around the world working–hard–for so, so, so much less. It’s a wonder how people like Axelrod (and others) justify this to themselves. Sad…

PS Also logged in HOURS volunteering, canvassing out in the snow and ice for the primaries, caucusing out in the heat and the rain, calling, data entry, gave my home over to staff members coming in from out of town (gratis), all out of love and faith in the campaign and in Barack Obama. Obama will make, what $450 a year in office and Axelrod walks away with $70 million? There really is a problem with money in politics in America.

Please note that the article does not say how much he was paid. Read it again slowly.

Regardless, whatever he’s paid is money well deserved. Trust the President-Elect to know what’s right, & how to select his people.

Read the article, people – read it slowly. Nowhere does it say that David walked away with $70 million or $7 million. However, regardless of what he received he definitely earned every penny (and lots and lots of those pennies were mine).

I really don’t care if he hauled in the entire $700 million. The bottomline is: Obama won the presidency.

Where did the 10% figure come from? Is that a guess, a rumor, or a fact?
Anyone know the answer?

I cant see Obama giving a crazy amount like 7 million or whaver has been projected to Davud Axelrod.

Jed Clampett

The amounts paid to campaign officials and others is disclosed in all the campaign finance paperwork. Those numbers have seldom been explored or disclosed. Would be interesting to know how much both campaigns spent and where they spent it. Administrative, advertising, catering, etc. etc.
Shouldn’t the American people know how fiscally responsible the group taking over the leadership of the nation actually is?
Until those numbers are released, the numbers being thrown about are merely conjecture designed to discredit and smear the president elect already. Seems counter productive and self defeating… why does the republican party and it’s membership continue to foster divisiveness and animosities within it’s countrymen in a time of war? Treason perhaps? A greater interest in regaining power instead of strengthening the nation?

Peace

Already the nastiness starts! My son,in college, donated from his $250 dollar a week part-time job almost 10 weeks pay. We DONT CARE how much Axelrod got..and we certainly don’t believe he got 70 million either.

But you know, America used to be rich because Americans were not so damned MEAN! WE are the meanest set of people on GOd’s earth, no wonder we are becoming poor!

We all gave to get a new President! Stop counting the pennies and wondering who got what – even in HEAVEN some people will have more diamonds studding their crown- BE GRATEFUL!

Finally, with over 1 million paid campaign employees, busing, trucking, pamphlets, sets, rallies, props- do you really believe that 700 million is MONEY?!

That works out to $2.00 spent per American Citizen….a soda pop and a Chili dog if you are lucky..that’s all, so CHILL!

And on the subject of Rahm Emanuel, I guess some of you were hoping that WIMPY OBAMA would have an equally WIMPY Chief of Staff that every one could ride right over…sorry, it ain’t gonna happen!

And just in case you think No-Drama Obama IS INDEED a Wimp- you can see he will be ensuring that he has a barbed wire fence of advisers ensuring that no one takes him for a ride. This is a real job, not a virtual reality PlayStation game, ok- this is LIFE!

Jed Clampett

Seems interesting and hypocritical that they would raise a compensation issue with these organizers that conducted a classy campaign, despite their political instincts, under the leadership of an uncommon man in a polarized nation with extremely high cost of organization; yet defend the salaries paid to Executive and Director boards of corporations that make tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
ie. the executive board of AIG, whose excessive salaries have to come from overcharging their customers for shoddy service, evinced in it’s recent collapse and bailout. Now add that to the executives of healthsouth whose multi-BILLION dollar compensation packages come from skimming the healthcare system. Now multiply that by the myriad companies paying their executives millions while reducing expenses by freezing pension, laying off employees and shifting production to foreign nations in order to avoid labor and environmental laws designed to protect everyone. Then you begin to understand why only 3% of the population would be directly affected by an increase in taxes on those making above $250 thousand annually and why the difference between average executive pay and salaried pay has been elevated to a factor or 450 over the last 4 decades. That’s 450 times more than salaried employees, just imagine what the difference is for hourly employees.

Just food for thought and a call for meaningful and effective change, reformation, progress, prosperity and justice for all.

Peace

Did Axelrod really get 70 million? It’s not enough.

I am not happy with the Rahm Emanuel appointment.

Very disturbing. I voted for Obama because I’m anti-war.

Please people, stay vigilant, watch this stuff.

Well appointing a jew chief of staff and his friend had already created douts to us as obama will have anti muslims policies.So there will be no difference between obama and bush.i belive his policies should be neutral and equalint for all of us.

Jed Clampett

This coming from a group that is destabilizing the entire region and the world with their terrorist agenda.
Do you have some special connection to spirit, Omer, that you think you can see the future? That you can see what a certain human is truly like? Who bombs India by proxy with the Mujahadeen? Why it’s our ‘friends’ in Pakistan.
Who bombs Russian cities and takes children hostage? Why it’s Chechnyans with funding and training from Pakistan.
Who rules over the peasants of Afghanistan with threat of violence and death? Why it’s the Taliban with funding and training from Pakistan.
So when we talk about protecting our world, our people, our Earth, our God, it is very easy to see who is with us and who is against us; those that implement the evil acts mentioned in the Koran, those who’ve fallen for the traps warned about in the second Surra, they are the true enemies of Allah, they are the ones that mislead their brothers into violence and self destruction. The ones that must win their internal struggle for the sake of all.

Peace

Democrats are notorious for eating their own. For heaven’s sake people, give the President Elect a break from the BS and give them some time!!!

Tell you what, Tim. I don’t care how much Axelrod got paid because it was worth every penny and, as others have said, a lot of those pennies were mine. Axelrod is a superior strategist and he will be a real asset in the WH. Stone needs to get a grip and quit flogging our man’s choices so fast.

I don’t care how much may or may not have been paid….it was worth every penny.

The Obama campaign was run with exceptional intelligence, expertise, professionalism and precision…the results speak for themselves.

For those who have a problem with his staff selection, start your own efforts to elect another incompetent George Bush like Republican in 4 to 8 years (e.g. Palin), or shut up and let President-Elect Obama do his job.

President Elect Obama has my full support and his supporters are ready, willing and able to fight…DO NOT underestimate us.

I love the hypocrisy here! If a CEO was paid $70 mil cash when the low level employees were waiting for theirs, this board would scream and howl, but since it is Axelrod, it is acceptable.
Obama sure means change!

He said it was an “open question”, one which we may never really know the answer to. You are railing against a figure that doesn’t really hold any significance.