BLITZER: And joining us now, the president's senior adviser, David Axelrod. David, thanks very much for coming in.

DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Wolf, it's good to be with you. Happy anniversary, by the way.

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BLITZER: Oh, thank you very much. Always exciting to celebrate five years of THE SITUATION ROOM.

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AXELROD: A lot of situations. A lot of situations.

BLITZER: And you know what? There will be a lot more situations coming down the road.

AXELROD: There will be.

BLITZER: You guys have your own Situation Room. We have one over here as well.

AXELROD: I know.

BLITZER: All right, let's talk politics first. Then we will get to some of the substantive issues.

The president of the United States goes to Texas, and the Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Bill White, doesn't want to be seen with the president on this day. Last week, he went to Georgia. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Roy Barnes, doesn't want to be seen with the Democratic president of the United States.

What's wrong with this picture?

AXELROD: Well, Wolf, in fairness, we didn't carry Texas or Georgia, so the politics for us has always been a little challenging in those states.

And these candidates have -- they're running now. They're on the ballot. They're going to make the judgments they think are best for their campaigns. And I'm totally fine with that. The president understands -- understands that.

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BLITZER: We're showing our viewers, by the way, a picture of the president arriving in Texas. And Rick Perry, the Republican governor, who is running for reelection, he's there. But you know what? The Democratic gubernatorial candidate isn't there.

AXELROD: Well, Rick Perry is there because he is the governor, and that's an official greeting. And that's nice. I'm glad that he was there. I'm sure they had a nice conversation.

BLITZER: I guess the question is, is the president in some of these states, some of these districts, a liability to Democratic candidates?

AXELROD: Look, I'm sure he's stronger some districts and states than others.

The one thing that I know is that, fairly consistently, across the country, his numbers are substantially better than the Republicans in Congress, so, you know, if you want to make that kind of comparison.

But I think, ultimately, these races are going to be decided on the basis of the strength of those campaigns, the strength of the candidates, sometimes, uniquely local issues. That's the way these campaigns run in midterms. And we understand that.

BLITZER: So, you understand why some of these Democrat candidates would prefer not necessarily to be seen with the president, although, if you have asked me a year ago, or two years ago for sure, that -- that Barack Obama, who was so popular, might be pushed aside a little bit by some of these Democratic candidates, even in states like Georgia or Texas, I would have been surprised.

AXELROD: Well, look, Wolf, politics is a dynamic -- a dynamic force.

The fact is that -- and things change. But, look, these candidates are going to make the decisions they think are best for them. We wish them well. Obviously, the president is raising money in Texas today to help Democratic candidates across the country. He's making a speech about education and its importance in America's economic future. We're down there doing the business we went to do.

BLITZER: Will the first lady, Michelle Obama be out on the campaign trail between now and November 2?

AXELROD: I'm sure that she will, Wolf. She feels strongly about the affirmative things that this administration has done. She's been a leader on some of them. Just last week, the United States Senate passed a bill on child nutrition. As you know, that's been a great focus of hers. We've got a huge problem in this country in terms of child nutrition, childhood obesity. And this would be a big step forward in making sure that schools across the country are feeding kids in a nutritious way, a healthier way. These kinds of things are advances that we've made over the last 18 months. I think she wants to go out and talk about those.

BLITZER: Was the criticism of her vacation in Spain with her daughter fair?

AXELROD: Look, here's my view. Yes, she's the first lady of the United States. She's also a mom. She wanted to take her daughter on a trip. They went with some friends of the family to celebrate another little girl's birthday. There aren't all that many places to go where you get privacy. Wherever you go, security is going to come, not because she asked for it but because that is nature of her position in life. And so, you know, I think people will judge it in that way. She's a very good mom. She's very committed. And she wanted to do something with her daughter. Do I think it's unfair? I'll let other people judge, but I think that she's entitled to do those kinds of things as anyone else would be.

BLITZER: Let's talk a little bit about the president. In recent days we've heard him mention by name George W. Bush, and critically saying the Republicans want to just bring back the Bush policies. Frank Rich, the columnist in "The New York Times" wrote this, "Obama and the Democrats are, if anything, flattering the current GOP by accusing it of being a carbon copy of Bush. But even if the Democrats sharpen their attack, they are doomed to fall short if they don't address the cancer in the American heart -- joblessness." Because there aren't the jobs being created that should be created right now.

AXELROD: Wolf, look. Joblessness is, in fact, the number one challenge facing this country. We've been working assiduously at it. There were 300,000 jobs lost in the month before the president took office, almost 800,000 jobs lost in his first month when he took over from the last administration. We've had seven straight months of private sector job growth. The economy is growing. Not nearly fast enough. We have to keep it moving, but the last thing we want to do is go back to the same policies that created the disaster in to the first place, and that's what this debate is about. We're not interested in re-litigating the past, but we don't want to relive it either. And what the Republicans are saying is we want to go back to doing exactly what we were doing before the president was elected. What they were doing before the president got elected was catastrophic for this country. We can't give special interest free reign to write their own rules again. We can't go back to the policies that turned Bill Clinton's $237 billion surplus into a $1.3 trillion deficit. We can't go back there. And that's what -- that's the argument we're making.

BLITZER: Does the president agree with Lindsay Graham and other Republicans that we should take a look at the 14th amendment to the constitution which grants citizenship to anyone born in the United States?

AXELROD: You know, Wolf, that is a debate that seems very political in this campaign season. I'm not going to engage in it here. The 14th amendment has a rather lengthy and proud history. It was written by the Republican Party. I'm not going to trifle with it, even for your fifth anniversary.

BLITZER: So basically, what I hear you saying is the president disagrees with these Republicans that there's no need to re-examine the 14th amendment to the constitution?

AXELROD: I'm not even sure -- I think they're making a political argument for this season. It's not a substantive argument.

BLITZER: When you say it's not a substantive -- maybe I'm missing something. But explain what you mean by that. Obviously the president disagrees then? Lindsey Graham says children of illegal immigrants should not necessarily automatically be granted citizenship. There are some coming here from China and other countries who simply want to have U.S. citizenship for their children. But go ahead and flush that out a little bit.

AXELROD: There's no question that for -- I'm the son of an immigrant. For generations and generations, people have come to this country because of what it represents, because of the hope and opportunity because of the freedom that we have here. That has always been the case. I think that's something we that we all embrace.

BLITZER: On that note, David Axelrod, thanks so much for coming in. I'm sure we'll spend a lot of quality time in the next five years.

AXELROD: I'm looking forward it to, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you.