OBAMA: Are you bothered by this?
AXELROD: Yes.
OBAMA: We've heard it all before, David: You drive me to the political safe ground. It's not true.
AXELROD: I know it's not true. . . . You drive me there. And you know it, too. . . We're stuck in neutral because that's where you tell me to stay.
OBAMA: You're wrong.
AXELROD: No, I'm not, sir.
OBAMA: You came to my house ... and you said "Barack, let's run for President" and I said "Why?" and you said "So you can open your mouth and say what you think". . . . Where did that part go, David?
AXELROD: You tell me, Mr. President. I don't see a shortage of cameras and microphones around here. What the hell were you waiting for?. . . Everything you do says "For God's sake, David, I don't want to be a one-term President." You dangle your feet and I'm the hall monitor around here. It's my job to make sure nobody runs too fast or goes off too far. . . . If you ever told me to get aggressive about anything, I'd say "I serve at the pleasure of the President" . . . . These people who would walk into fire if you told them to. . . . Everyone's waiting for you. I don't know how much longer.
OBAMA: I don't want to feel like this any longer.
AXELROD: You don't have to. . . .
OBAMA: This is more important than re-election, I want to speak now.
AXELROD: I'm going to talk to the staff, I'm going to take them off the leash.
OBAMA: You have a strategy for all this?
AXELROD: I have the beginning of one.
OBAMA: "What?"
AXELROD: David writes out on a legal pad, "Let Obama Be Obama".
You took the 60 votes out for a spin. It got us pretty far. Let's HCR done and take it to the Republicans.