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Finding out first thing in the morning that your boss has just won the Nobel Peace Prize is a "heck of a way to wake up."
David Axelrod, senior adviser to President Barack Obama, spoke at UNL's Champions Club Friday night. Photo: Rob McLean, NewsNetNebraska
Gibbs repeated the announcement, and Obama asked if Gibbs was joking. Axelrod said Gibbs leveled with the president: He didn't feel secure enough in his job to joke about something like that.
Axelrod's story was just one of the White House anecdotes he shared with those gathered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Champions Club. His lecture was part of the Peter J. Hoagland Integrity in Public Service Lecture Series. Hoagland, who represented Nebraska's second congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1989 to 1995, died two years ago.
Axelrod also told the audience that the first time Obama decided to use the phrase "yes we can," which he popularized while campaigning for president last year, he asked his wife, Michelle, if she thought it was too corny.
She told him it wasn't.
During a question-and-answer period after his speech, an audience member asked if Axelrod believed the final health plan currently being debated on Capitol Hill would include a public option. Axelrod jokingly referred the question to another audience member seated in the front row, U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). Earlier this week, Nelson, a self-described "Jeffersonian Democrat," suggested he might support a state-based public option.
Axelrod has a daughter who has epilepsy, and he said this personal experience figures in his own attitude toward health care reform. He said he believes that after what he called a long and complete debate Washington is now close to moving forward.
On Afghanistan, Axelrod said Obama is considering many elements, including the nature of Afghan governance, before making a decision on the region. The media, Axelrod argued, doesn't see that, however, choosing instead to cover the story as what he called "a binary issue."
But he didn't talk only of government and politics. He also congratulated Husker fans on their win earlier this week against the University of Missouri's Tiger football team, saying he has come to "appreciate victories on a sloppy field."
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