Q&A: Top Obama Strategist David Axelrod

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So, how's the speech writing going for Tuesday night?

As we always do, we've got two drafts going, we're prepared for any exigency. They're not done, we're just starting to think about it now... [The themes will] depend what the outcome is... [but] this has been a great journey and so much has been accomplished in this campaign. We're going to have positive things to say regardless of the outcome but, obviously, the speeches are going to be slightly different if he's assuming new responsibilities and if he's not, so we'll see.

Do you expect he'll be able to deliver a speech Tuesday night or Wednesday morning?

Well, we'll see. Again, we're not taking anything for granted. It feels like we'll know something on Tuesday night, but however long it takes we're prepared to wait.

Steve Hildebrand, Obama's ground game guru, told me a while back that you'll have eight million volunteers out on Election Day. True?

We've certainly been in contact with that many people. I don't know exactly how many have been mobilized but it's pretty impressive. Whatever happens on Tuesday, Barack said to us from the beginning that he wanted a campaign from the ground up because that's the kind of politics he believes in and that's how change happens and I think that without a shadow of a doubt we have accomplished that.

What are you going to do on Nov 5?

On Nov. 5, I'm going to depressurize and begin to try and make up to my family all the time that they have lost here. And you know what else I'm going to do? I'm probably going to shed a few tears for all the people that I have spent the last two years with day-in and day-out, 24-hours-a-day, who I won't be with in the future. Because one of the really rewarding parts of this has been the collegiality and the friendships. I mean, we're like a family and I keep thinking about the end of the movie M.A.S.H. You know, the war is over and we're all glad to be going home but there's this melancholy because we're all so close. These are relationships that have been forged in battle here and these are relationships you'll cherish for the rest of your life. So I'll be relieved, I'll be happy to get back with my family. But this'll be something that I'll always remember.