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LINCOLN — Americans should be grateful that President Barack Obama is taking time to decide the United States' future role in Afghanistan, Obama's closest adviser told a Nebraska audience Friday night.
“We've tried it the other way, and we all know it didn't work,” White House strategist David Axelrod said.
Axelrod arrived a little late for his planned lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because, he said, he spent the day with the president discussing the conflict. The university announced the delay Thursday.
Early Friday morning, Axelrod learned of another event that took up his time: His boss won an unexpected Nobel Peace Prize, which dominated the national news cycle.
Axelrod spent much of the speech talking about the president's personal characteristics and about the evolution of Obama from their first meeting 18 years ago to the man he's become today.
The president, he said, still writes speeches and makes decisions late into the night. But now he has a lot more help.
Six years ago, Axelrod said, he and the future president were driving across Illinois together, trying to convince people that a man named Barack could be elected to Congress. Today, that man woke up a Nobel Peace Prize-winning president of the United States.
Axelrod said he discussed the award Friday morning with his boss: “I said, ‘Man, isn't this kind of surreal?' and he said ‘Kind of.' ”
The prize committee cited Obama's commitment to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons — a commitment Axelrod said the president considers necessary.
U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, who flew home to attend the lecture, said Obama's prize is one of aspiration.
“It's the promise that he has to the world, and in such a short time he has reversed the opinions of the rest of the world,” Nelson said.
Nebraska's senior senator called Axelrod's appearance a great honor for the state.
“He really is one of the most important people in the world because of his relationship with President Obama.”
Axelrod spoke Friday at the University of Nebraska's annual Peter J. Hoagland Integrity in Public Service Lecture. Hoagland, a former U.S. Representative and an Omaha native, died in 2007.
Jim Crounse, his former chief of staff, established the lecture series in Hoagland's name in 2008. Crounse extended the speaking invitation to Axelrod, a longtime friend with whom Crounse worked in Democratic politics in the 1980s.
Crounse introduced Axelrod before the lecture, delayed two hours to accommodate the adviser's schedule. The time change may have affected attendance, UNL officials said.
Two rooms had been set up for overflow guests, but all who attended were able to see Axelrod in person. Officials said UNL was pleased with the Friday night attendance of nearly 500 people.
The university's College of Arts and Sciences and political science department co-sponsored the lecture. Elizabeth Theiss-Morse, the department's chairwoman, described Axelrod as among the nation's best political advisers.
“I think there's only been a handful of political advisers and strategists who are considered really great, and David Axelrod's one of them,” Theiss-Morse said.
Before he became the president's chief adviser, Axelrod served as Obama's senior campaign strategist and transition adviser during the 2008 election. Axelrod founded a political consulting firm in Chicago and led many political campaigns, including Obama's successful 2004 bid for the Senate. Three years later, Obama announced his campaign for the presidency.
“It started off with no money, no organization and, according to the people in Washington, no prospects,” Axelrod said, telling the audience he was pleased to speak at UNL because change began at colleges and universities.
“It was really the young of this country who kept us going.”
After Nebraska's football victory Thursday night against Missouri, Axelrod said, Husker fans and the Obama administration have another thing in common:
“After nine months in Washington, I appreciate victories on a sloppy field.”
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