David Axelrod actually said...

"These were retrenching appointments. These were a statement to the base and the world that the statements I made in the campaign are now going to be carried forward into an administration."

"You cannot simply assume that you are going to have enough votes among your base and that you can write off swaths of the country."

"Because he doesn't have a track record on a lot of this, just the statements of a campaign, who he surrounds himself as secretary of state, as the national security advisor?"

"We all have to hope for success. It's the success of the country but there are a lot of people who say well, gee, they didn't give Barack Obama that chance."