Probably not. Although it’s as good an answer as any, I guess*.
…Mr. Axelrod was as bothered by the words and her discussion of “the Obama brand” and her role in promoting it, according to people informed about the conversation.
“The president is a person, not a product,” he was said to tell her. “We shouldn’t be referring to him as a brand.”
Via Ann Althouse, via Glenn Reynolds. You can understand why Axelrod was so ticked, though: his entire career and reputation from now on rises and falls on his ability to promote the “Obama brand” – a key feature of which is, of course, the flat denial that there could ever be any sort of thing as an “Obama brand.” Having people actually talk about the “Obama brand” in public was just one more thing that Axelrod didn’t need happening. Particularly when it’s the White House social secretary; normally, they’re about the only people who can get away with calling an “Obama brand” an “Obama brand.” Of course, normally the sentiments that lurk behind the concept of an “Obama brand” aren’t the building blocks of the primary governing strategy of a Presidential administration.
Moe Lane
*Read the whole thing only if you haven’t hit your ‘whining stories about people getting shafted by Washington’ quota for the day. I’m really glad that we have modern medicine, but by God having it has completely redefined our definition of “tragedy.”