PROVOCATION IS HIS SUBSTITUTE FOR LEADERSHIP: David Axelrod: Obama knew Prayer Breakfast remarks would provoke.

“I think he knew what he was saying and he knew it was provocative,” Axelrod said. “His point is we have a quarter of the world’s population Islamic and the vast majority of them have nothing to do with extremism and his point is let us not define that entire quarter of the planet by the actions of extremists, let’s isolate the extremists.”

White House spokesman Eric Schultz said last week Obama was trying to talk about moments “over the course of human history there are times where extremists pervert their own religion to justify violence.”

Obama also believes it is important for the U.S. “to be honest with ourselves and look inward, and hold ourselves accountable” when it falls short of its values and standards, Schultz said.

Uh huh.