President Barack Obama is so fired up about the last stretch of this election that his stump speech is "coming from his loins," top campaign adviser David Axelrod told reporters Friday.
Axelrod made the comment during an impromptu briefing with reporters in Lima, Ohio, along with senior White House adviser David Plouffe.
Responding to this reporter’s question, "Can you tell us how the president feels right now?" Axelrod responded: "I can say I've known him for 20 years, we’ve worked closely for 10 years; I’ve never seen him more exhilarated than he is right now."
"You can see in the speech that he’s delivering that this is coming from his loins," he continued. As giggles emanated from the assembled press, he added, jokingly, "I just wanted to say loins."
Despite the light moment, the advisers spent most of the gaggle drilling down into homestretch campaign strategy.
The Obama team was specifically asked about the fact Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign is making a late run for Pennsylvania, evidenced by Romney visiting there Sunday.
Axelrod suggested Romney’s late play for the Keystone state was a result of the Republicans' dwindling hopes in all-important Ohio.
"The fact is their campaign had a car wreck in Ohio and now they’re trying to make up for it in Pennsylvania," he said.
The comment was a clear reference to Romney’s opposition to the auto bailout, which resonates with Ohio voters. But when pressed about why the Obama team would send former President Bill Clinton to Pennsylvania this weekend if they are so confident, Axelrod replied: "All it reflects is our prudence that we’re going to defend what we have."
Plouffe pointed to the fact that there are about a million more Democrats registered in Pennsylvania than Republicans. Still polls show the race is tightening in Pennsylvania with both campaigns pouring money into advertising there – a sign there is at least some unease within the Obama campaign ranks.
The race is also close in Ohio where Obama spent the day hammering Romney for saying on the stump and in ads that Jeep planned to ship jobs to China. The claim has been widely discredited by the car company and newspapers throughout Ohio. Still, the Romney campaign stands by the claim arguing that the companies will eventually expand production overseas.
When a reporter asked the Obama campaign officials if they saw any tangible sign that Romney’s Jeep ad has hurt him in Ohio, Plouffe responded: "There is no bit of data that we’ve seen in this last week that makes us less confident."
Axelord quipped that reporters will have the answers to all their questions soon: "Everybody is fascinated to know what is going to happen on Tuesday; we're going to know on Tuesday."
