British Election: Messina Defeats Axelrod

The British election yesterday wasn’t just a battle of Tories vs. Labour but an odd fight between former top aides to President Obama.

The Conservative Party won 331 seats and the Labour Party won 232. Labour Party leader Ed Milliband has already stepped down.

“This is the sweetest victory of all,” Prime Minister David Cameron told supporters at his victory party. “The real reason to celebrate tonight, the real reason to be proud, the real reason to be excited is we are going to get the opportunity to serve our country again.”

Anti-Israel Respect Party leader George Galloway lost his seat by more than 10,000 votes to Labour’s Naz Shah. Galloway complained that “the venal, the vile, the racists and the Zionists will all be celebrating” his loss.

But someone else was nursing his wounds: former Obama senior adviser David Axelrod, who advised the Labour Party in what many observers thought was going to be an election that led to a hung parliament instead of a full trouncing.

And advising the Tories? Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina.

Things US&UK have in common: completely broken public polling & re-electing their strong leaders.

— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) May 8, 2015

Campaigns are about future & Cameron was viewed as having the more optimistic vision for future by 10+ pts https://t.co/0JZXV1JGWy

— Jim Messina (@Messina2012) May 8, 2015

Disappointed by Thursday’s result, but I’ll always be proud of @Ed_Miliband & his heartfelt battle to make Britain work for all her people.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 8, 2015

Congratulations to my friend @Messina2012 on his role in the resounding Conservative victory in Britain.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 8, 2015

In all my years as journalist & strategist, I’ve never seen as stark a failure of polling as in UK. Huge project ahead to unravel that.

— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) May 8, 2015

President Obama, who grudgingly waited days to address Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s beat-back of a challenge to his rule, quickly issued a statement congratulating Cameron on his “impressive electoral victory.”

“The special and essential relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is rooted in deep and abiding shared interests and values,” Obama said. “I have enjoyed working closely with Prime Minister Cameron on a range of shared interests these last several years, and I look forward to continuing to strengthen the bonds between our countries, as we work together on behalf of global peace, security and prosperity.”