David Axelrod dismisses Bachmann's "General Axelrod" slam

David Axelrod on Friday dismissed the notion that the president is making his foreign policy decisions based on political considerations in Washington, calling the charges "nonsense" arguing that Mr. Obama "has more than proven himself as commander in chief."

"We've been on a track for - since the beginning of the administration to withdraw troops in a responsible way -- that's what we've done. And so it really doesn't have anything to do with me," Axelrod added.

Axelrod, a top campaign strategist for the president, has of late been a favorite target of Michele Bachmann, who has taken to referring to him as "General Axelrod" and criticized the president for allegedly turning to him on foreign policy matters.

"President Obama's plan for job creation has absolutely nothing to do with the true people who know how to create jobs," Bachmann contended at Wednesday night's GOP presidential race. "He should really be going to job creators if he wants to know how to create jobs. Instead, he continues to go to a General Axelrod in Chicago to look for his orders to figure out how to deal with the economy."

"I think that's nonsense and I think the president has more than proven himself as commander in chief," Axelrod responded Friday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

Axelrod disputed the notion that the U.S. caved to Iraqi demands in agreeing to fully withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq by the end of this year.

"There were discussions back and forth with the Iraqi government about whether some [combat troops] would remain, a small number, in training roles, and that, those didn't prove out," he said.

But when asked if the U.S. could have pushed the Iraqi government harder to maintain a military presence there , Axelrod said "that's simply not true."

"We've been steadily criticized. Some of those same Republicans criticized the president's strategy in Libya -- that turned out pretty well. Some of them originally said he wasn't going to be tough enough

on al Qaeda, and I think that's proven not to be the case. So I wouldn't take these criticisms terribly seriously -- it's politics."