As a follow-up to campaign deal-making, here’s a verbatim transcript of a quick one-on-one I had with

As a follow-up to campaign deal-making, here’s a verbatim transcript of a quick one-on-one I had with Obama consultant David Axelrod:

DA: All I’ll tell you is that we’re after everybody…we want to be everybody’s choice. I don’t know anything about deals.

TS: Can you comment on whether you approached other candidates?

DA: I didn’t approach any candidates.

TS: Did David [Plouffe, campaign manager] or anyone else?

DA: I…I…believe we are aggressively pursuing all second choice…all the second choice options directly in the precincts without deal-making.

TS: So, as a matter of targeting not as a matter of deal-making?

DA: That’s what I’m saying.

There was a notable pause before that second-last question.

Earlier in the day, a Dodd spokesman basically confessed that some of the top-tier candidates, without naming names, had approached their campaign, too.

–Tom Schaller

Thomas F. Schaller is an associate professor of political science at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and author of The Stronghold: How Republicans Captured Congress but Surrendered the White House.