Ex-Obama Aides Face Off in Britain

The New York Times notes that former Obama advisers David Axelrod and Jim Messina are advising opposing candidates in the upcoming British elections which is expected to be a referendum on austerity and immigration.

“The British elections in 2015 will be waged over these competing economic visions, the country’s stomach for hard-right anti-immigration appeals, and the candidates’ abilities to manage coalition partners. But the contest is also shaping into a proxy competition between two titans of the “No-Drama-Obama” campaigns who are acting out their ideological and personal conflicts on a faraway stage. As more former aides turn their affiliation with the president into lucrative consulting arrangements, the Battle of Britain crystallizes a concern among some Democrats over whether those most central to Mr. Obama’s rise should be expected in their private business to stand for his public policies and values. And if they are not, some of the president’s supporters wonder what exactly it means to work for Mr. Obama in the first place.”