2012 – a moment of reflection

>> you the first question. and not the razor.

>> david , we've been singing your praises here all morning and i think justifiably so for the incredible campaign you ran. congratulations. obviously a huge accomplishment.

>> thanks.

>> so many things you guys -- i was talking to you guys monday morning in madison, you were laying out what you thought would happen. almost all of it happened exactly as you and david plouffe laid out. was there anything about the election that surprised you, either positive or negative, playing out in a way different from the way your model suggested they would play out on tuesday?

>> you know, actually, no. i mean the dominos fell exactly as we had forecast. let me just say, i accept your congratulations. i'm accepting it on behalf of an incredible team of people, including these brim yalliant analytics guys that looked at the data and really laid out where they thought we were. a great pollster and team of pollsters who are terrific. we really had a good sense going into this election of where our opportunities were and how this was likely to go. as soon as the votes started coming in and we matched them up against the model, we were well convinced that the thing was going to go according to plan.

>> david , you guys were confident days before, even weeks before. i know a little bit of concern after the first debate. but soon after that you knew that it wasn't about crowd sizes, it wasn't about emotion even in the crowds. it was about numbers and voter contacts. right?

>> yes. although i will say, i traveled with the president in the last four days and it really was a great affirmation that this was going to be a good day. we had wonderful crowds, tremendous emotion, and it was -- you could see this thing welling up. but we also had great organizations in everyone of these states, millions of volunteers around the country and great staffs in these states and they all were supremely confident. they knew what their targets were. they were exceeding them. the early vote was incredibly encouraging. registration, we registered over a million new voters and in key places and that helped. so i give credit to jim mussina, plouffe always lurking around the scene. everyone had had had a very, very well designed plan, and that plan goes back not months, not weeks or months but a year-and-a-half. this has been a plan that's been in place for a year-and-a-half and so many people were involved in executing it.

>> david , listening to the congressional leaders yesterday, it did sound like everyone's idea of compromise was getting the other side to come over to them. even with your big win, how are things going to be any different if you listen to the way the political leaders talked yesterday? what is going to change?

>> richard, as you you say that, i was thinking about richard mourdock in indiana who famously said compromise is when they agree with us. i note that he's not on his way to the united states senate . i don't think that's a way forward for the country. so everyone's going to have to come to the table in the spirit of getting something done. but on this issue of particularly the fiscal cliff, one thing -- people -- presidents always say, well, i had a mandate, i had a mandate. that's a foolish word and it's generally untrue. but the president did campaign all over this country. he talked about it in debates. he talked about it in speeches on the need for balanced deficit reduction that included some new revenues. and he was re-elected in a significant way. so i think that hopefully people will read those results and read them as a vote for cooperation and will come to the table. obviously everyone's going to have to come with an open mind to these discussions but if the attitude is -- nothing happened on tuesday, that would be unfortunate.

>> hey, david , the open mind phrase, what about the open door phrase. what are the odds of an open door becoming more available in the white house to more republicans and democrats coming down to see the president and the people in the white house who are going to deal with the fiscal cliff. what are the odds of the president of the united states getting in the car and traveling up to capitol hill on a frequent basis over the next three to four weeks, extending his hand and opening up, you know, doors in the capitol to people on both sides of the hill to this crisis that we all face?

>> mike, the back door is open. it has been open. i spent two years in the white house . i saw republicans coming in and out and i traveled with the president to the hill. back in 2009 , he was on the way to capitol hill to talk about the recovery act when the house republican caucusish aud a isis isis isis h issued a release saying they were going to vote en masse against it. we want people walking in both ways. i've known barack obama for 20 years. i watched him in the illinois state senate . i watched him in the united states senate and i worked by his side in the white house . i don't know anybody who is more willing to work with people from whatever political party and whatever background and whatever persuasion in order to move things forward. i know that he's going to bring that spirit to this as we deal with this and other issues. what we want to do is break that misguided notion that somehow obstruction is a winning strategy and that partisanship should take precedence over progress. hopefully this election will help do that.

>> david axelrod , thank you on many levels. it was very kind. i like our bet and where it's gone.

>> finally, mika , thank you so much, all of you, for all of your support for curing epilepsy. your friendship means more than t continues.ay.

>> thank you so much. mika , being a brzezinski is a diplomat, but also like her father, she's tough and immediately writes stuff down.

>> barnicle and halprin -- and $5,000. donny $10,000. joe $10,000. will larry help? $5,000? $5,000 for larry . ann? i like it. okay.

>> mika , not since jerry lewis .

>> mika --

>> susan, count the money.

>> you put in a "5" along with larry . we're on our way to $1 million. you can help, too, at home. cure epilepsy. it really is obviously david is extremely happy that the president of the united states was re-elected. but this has been, and always will be the cause of his life and susan axelrod's life. cure epilepsy. go there. or also go to slashthestash.com. we're raising a million dollars for epilepsy and the cure. david axelrod , thank you so much. we appreciate your friendship as well.