First Class of the Axelrod Political Institute at U. of C. - February, 2013

"My goal now is to help encourage young people who are going to be the David Axelrods and better in the future so that we'll have a new generation of people who'll be active in politics and public life," he said.

February 2013. University of Chicago - The Dave Axelrod Institute of Politics 101:

Good Morning, I must say it is a delight to be here with all of you bright and well scrubbed foreheads. The mustache on each every one you warms my heart.

Please, if you have any gum in your mouths please spit it into this Waste Management basket, provided by the patriots now doing the people's business all over Chicago.

Our concern in politics and all politics is global.

What we do here is transformational.

What we say here is transformable.

What we do here is transmutable.

Today you are students, but you are also activists, guerrillas, agents for change,Sherpas on the long climb, sailors on the Costa Concordia of the Constitution - if it hits a rock; hit the silk, Jim!

I came to the conclusion months ago, and I said it to members of Congress, that the only way people are going to fully appreciate what this reform is if we pass it and implement it and it becomes not a caricature but a reality, and I still believe that. So I think it will be easier to sell it moving forward than it was to this point.

You see if you want something bad enough, no matter how bad it is, it is a good thing and it must be. Let it be!

Where would the six LGBTQ young marines, depicted in the great monument in Washington D.C., who raised the flag on Hitler's bunker in 1941, be if they did know the verifiable accountability behind their actions?

I have never believed in the Wizard of Oz theory of consulting, that I am all-knowing and all-seeing, and that everyone around me is kind of a backbencher. No that is why after I left the White House, President Obama threw the Alice in Wonderland secret party.

You are all here to learn from me. Here is something from scripture -

I don't want to straight-face you
Race or chase you, track or trace you
Or disgrace you or displace you
Or define you or confine you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to meet your kin
Make you spin or do you in
Or select you or dissect you
Or inspect you or reject you
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

I don't want to fake you out
Take or shake or forsake you out
I ain't lookin' for you to feel like me
See like me or be like me
All I really want to do
Is, baby, be friends with you.

That's me baby! If you are looking for someone else you are in the wrong classroom!

Go lightly from the ledge, babe
Go lightly on the ground
I’m not the one you want, babe
I will only let you down
You say you’re lookin’ for someone
Who will promise never to part
Someone to close his eyes for you
Someone to close his heart
Someone who will die for you an’ more
But it ain’t me, babe
No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe
It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe

Remember speak with a whisper; no one is ever listening. You, Dave in the third row . . .you and Dave in the fourth, Dave in seventh and Dave in the eighth . . .take these syllabi and distribute them.

Oh, don't forget to sign up for the bowling team!