David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, has praised First Lady Michelle Obama for helping to launch her husband's famous catchphrase, "Yes, we can."
Obama was dubious about using the slogan when he ran for the Senate in 2004 until Michelle gave it the thumbs up,
according to Politico.
In his new book
"Believer, My Forty Years in Politics," Axelrod says that the then-state senator was worried that Illinois voters would scoff at the expression.
"'Yes we can. Isn't that too corny?'" he asked his wife, who then shook her head and replied, "not corny."
Axelrod
told the Times, "Michelle just happened to come by for the first ad shoot, and that was the ad that closed with the line 'Yes we can.'"
In the book, Axelrod says the future first lady's approval sealed the deal, "preserving a tag line that would become our rallying cry in this and future campaigns."
"Thank God she was there that day," he told the Times.
Last week, Axelrod revealed that potential White House candidate Hillary Clinton made a mistake by going on a book tour and conducting paid speeches across the country just to
fill her coffers.
"If I had been advising her, would I have advised that route? No! She had some opportunities she wanted to seize, and she did," he said in an interview promoting his book.
"We'll see what she does when she actually become a candidate."
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