Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod appeared together on MSNBC this morning and tried to deflect attention from last night’s Massachusetts special election loss and its ramifications on health care reform to the administration’s focus on the economy.
“That’s something that we have to pay a great deal of attention to,” Axelrod said. “It is the focus of this president’s attention at all times.”
But the two senior administration officials did address health care reform — and who’s to blame for last night’s costly loss in Massachusetts.
“There’s an unbecoming habit in this town of trying to defray responsibility, point in other directions,” Axelrod said. “And so let me say, it was Robert’s fault.”
More seriously, Axelrod acknowledged that “we also have to take into account what voters were saying yesterday.”
“We’ll take that into account and then we’ll decide how to move forward,’ Axelrod said, adding that “it’s not an option simply to walk away.”
Axelrod and Gibbs, while largely staying on their economic message, did offer up a few jokes. Leading off their joint appearance, Axelrod said, “it may be our last — we’ll see how it goes.”
“We may take it on the road,” Gibbs countered.
