PITTSBURGH – Barack Obama’s camp is unloading on Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin after Palin described herself as a “pit bull” and then tore into Obama in a tough convention speech.
“There wasn’t one thing that she said about Obama or what he’s proposing that’s true,” fumed Obama’s strategist David Axelrod, speaking to reporters aboard Obama’s campaign plane.
Axelrod defended Obama against one of Palin’s most biting lines, when she ridiculed a favorite part of Obama’s resume, saying: “I guess a small town mayor is sort of like a community organizer — except that you have actual responsibilities.”
“They can demean service in the community but I think most people appreciate it,” Axelrod shot back.
“He’s proud of those three years that he spent as a young person working in those communities,” Axelrod said, referencing Obama’s time working in Chicago after college.
He accused Palin of trying to “ignore his work as a constitutional lawyer, as a professor at the University of Chicago, his eight years in the legislature, his years in the United States Senate.” Obama himself rarely mentions his time spent in academia or at Harvard Law.
Axelrod said the little-known Palin should answer reporters’ questions. “I don’t think the American people are going to tolerate candidates who are unwilling to answer basic questions about their record, about issues, about the country.”
“It’s an extraordinary event, shedding an awful lot of heat and no light. It almost defies the laws of physics,” he said of the GOP convention so far. “These are serious, serious times. People understand that we’ve got big problems. The fact that they don’t add any of them I think will be noted.”