August 08, 2011 01:36 AM UTC

'Is This A One Term Presidency?' CBS' Bob Schieffer asks David Axelrod On Obama

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• by: John H Kennedy

Perhaps the Democratic Party WILL have a Presidential Primary.

Bob Schieffer was enjoyably prickly today as he interviewed President Obama’s campaign advisor David Axelrod. After playing a clip of Obama from the beginning of his presidency telling Matt Lauer that three years later Americans will be able to determine whether he deserves a second term, Schieffer posed the question rather bluntly to Axelrod. “Is this going to be a one-term presidency?”

The question prompted this exchange, which seemed to leave Axelrod a bit shaken.

View it at http://bit.ly/nMw2jD

Axelord: “We are in a different place than we were the day he did that interview.”

Schieffer: “We are, things are worse than they were.”

And after Axelrod elaborated with a meandering answer, Schieffer interrupted his “extended response” and respectfully suggested he “stop talking about what the election is going to be about.” Instead Schieffer focused on what could be done now, and wondered whether he was wrong to think that nothing would get accomplished before the election. Axelrod politely informed him that yes, he was wrong, and that big things can still be accomplished. However, Schieffer’s visible skepticism and agitation with some of Axelrod’s long-winded responses suggest that Schieffer, like many Americans, may be eager for results.