Progress Illinois

This morning, David Axelrod appeared on Fox Chicago Sunday and had some notable remarks on both the local and national fronts.  He said that President-elect Barack Obama plans to stay out of Prairie State politics once in the White House and doesn't plan on being "a kingmaker or boss here in Illinois."  When co-host Dane Placko asked him about the vacant U.S. Senate seat, Axelrod disclosed that the Obama has spoken to Gov. Blagojevich about his replacement.  Watch it:

This is the first indication I've seen that the governor and president-elect have directly discussed the issue.  Of course, Axelrod gave no timeframe, so the discussion in question could presumably have occurred at any point (after all, the Chicago media and Illinois political community has been chatting about the subject for almost a year).

On the national level, Axelrod addressed concerns that there is a vacuum of leadership in Washington, D.C., despite the country's perilous economic state.  Some have recently gone so far as to suggest that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should resign early and hand the reigns over to their successor.  He said that the Obama camp would like to see certain things happen prior to his swearing-in, such as an "aggressive stimulus package" and some form of assistance for U.S. automakers.   But Axelrod made clear that Obama "won't try to take office six or eight weeks earlier and try to govern for the incumbent president." He added, "If things can't move forward now, then our job is to come in on January 20 with guns blazing to deal with this economic crisis."  Watch it:

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