Today's guest is David Axelrod, a longtime political operative best known for his years as Senior Advisor to President Barack Obama and the Chief Strategist for Obama's 2008 and 2012 Presidential campaigns. Axelrod grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Despite being deeply inspired by President John F. Kennedy and subsequently by his brother, Robert, Axelrod first entered the sphere of journalism. After attending the University of Chicago, he worked at the Chicago Tribune for eight years, where he learned about and came to love the city he still lives in today. In 1984 he took a role inside the Senatorial campaign for Paul Simon (D), who won despite great odds. From then on, Axelrod embraced politics, working on dozens of successful Mayoral campaigns, mostly. As his star grew so did the people he worked for. In 1992, he met Barack Obama. Sixteen years later, then Senator Obama asked Axelrod to run his campaign. The rest, literally, is history.