David Axelrod gives the Abbott Memorial Lecture, speaking on the 2016 election, and what the results will mean. David Axelrod is a veteran of American politics and journalism and the former chief strategist and senior advisor to President Barack Obama. He currently serves as director of the University of Chicago's non-partisan Institute of Politics; senior political commentator for CNN; and host of “The Axe Files,” a top-rated podcast jointly produced by CNN and his institute. Axelrod, a former political writer for the Chicago Tribune and, later, media strategist for 150 state, local, and national political campaigns, is also the author of The New York Times best-selling memoir, “Believer: My Forty Years in Politics.”