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David Axelrod has lots of thoughts about the probable Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential candidacy most of which come with some criticism of the woman he helped to defeat in the Democratic primary six years ago.

Speaking Thursday at The Wall Street Journals Capital Journal breakfast, the architect of President Barack Obamas winning presidential campaign messages said Mrs. Clinton could serve as a contrast to the Obama presidency.

Even when a president is popular, people tend to seek the remedy and not the replica. They want someone who has the qualities that they miss in the president, Mr. Axelrod said. This tends to be a pendular thing. I think in 2016 people are going to want someone who is a little less nuanced and a little less attuned to the complexity, someone who projects more of a sense of black and white certainty.

That environment favors Hillary Clinton more than the 2008 environment because she tends to be someone who speaks in simple, declarative sentences with great certainty, he said.

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Mr. Obamas 2008 campaign was hardly subtle. His campaign plastered CHANGE placards and banners at every event a direct implication that electing Mrs. Clinton would be more of the same. Sure, Mr. Obama often speaks in digressions something that hasnt always been helpful to his presidency.

Throughout the event, Mr. Axelrod attributed the Democrats midterm losses to a failure to articulate a coherent economic message. He included Mrs. Clinton among the offenders, saying that she must get out of the cocoon of inevitability and suggested she is already out in front of the rationale for her candidacy.

Afterward, Mr. Axelrod, who is now based in Chicago, said Mrs. Clinton is perfectly capable of delivering a strong economic pitch to the sort of middle-class voters who will decide the next presidential election. She did so, he said, while campaigning for Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Tom Wolf, but didnt always do so while stumping for other 2014 candidates.

I saw her deliver this message very effectively in 2008, he said. She just got to it way too late.

As far as his own political client, Mr. Axelrod attributed the presidents own communication failures to his inability to hew to an economic message of his own.

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Axelrod Sees Hillary Clinton as Contrast to Obama