It is 95 days since David Axelrod has bothered to mention Miliband on Twitter, the PLP are sharpening their knives and Labour’s six figure strategist has let slip that he is done with campaigning. Today Axelrod earns his dollar by telling the Guardian that his star British client “falls short of Obama”:

DA: “I had been spoiled. The thought of starting over with someone new – and almost certainly somebody who would fall short of Obama – was unappealing.”

Guardian: Would he put the Labour leader into that same category?

DA: “I think Obama’s a once-in-a-lifetime candidate. I can’t think of another person who I would put in his category in my experience of consulting. So I wouldn’t put that burden on Ed or anyone. I think Ed is a smart, earnest guy.”

The Axe was then asked for his six word summary of Labour’s election message. He replied:

“The promise of fixing Britain and creating jobs is that it says nothing about raising wages or economic security. That’s what’s fundamentally missing. If you are willing to proliferate zero-hour contracts and encourage policies that undercut wages you may claim that you’re creating jobs but you are also creating jobs that don’t support families. The question is do you have economic policies that are going to promote living wages, put people who are working hard in a position to support their families? Are you making education and training accessible to young people or are you going to make it so costly they are burdened with debt when they leave? The Tories just don’t look at the British economy through the lens of everyday people. They don’t have a kitchen table philosophy of economics and that’s why the recovery hasn’t reached kitchen tables around Britain.”

That’s 145 words. In the same interview Axelrod admits “my colleagues” deal with Labour rather than him. No kidding…