Since Axelrod’s been all over the place today, I’m going to assume he’s Tapper’s source here. In which case, how interesting that he chose to offer this particular bon mot anonymously.

To paraphrase Limbaugh, she’s living rent-free in their heads.

When Vice President Joe Biden went to upstate New York to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens on Monday, he took a risk.

Instead of campaigning in a low-key way, emphasizing local issues and Owens’ strengths, Biden picked up the gauntlet thrown down by national Republican figures such as Sarah Palin and Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and conservative pundits such as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, and agreed that the special House race was of national relevance…

“We’re 2-0 against Palin,” a senior administration official says. “The Vice President went in and took on Governor Palin and the other national Republicans who had gotten involved in the race and the White House is sure happy that Owens pulled out that win.”

“Biden campaigned on Palin/Beck/Rush because ‘Dem accomplishments’ didn’t fly,” counters S.E. Cupp, drily. Help me figure something out here: The Palin-centric read on NY-23 is all over the media today, no doubt to let the left make the case that she’s political poison. But if she’s the kiss of death, whose entry into a race can be counted on to send the silent majority fleeing into the arms of the Democrats, why’d Team Barry go to such lengths themselves to try to beat Hoffman? Obama attended a fundraiser for Owens; the vice president showed up for an eleventh-hour rally in the district; and they worked every connection they could to flip Scozzafava, leaving the nominees of both major parties aligned against the conservative. That’s a lot of effort to narrowly defeat someone who’d supposedly already received the coup de grace from Palin. But don’t look for logic on this subject: NBC’s own Palin-centric spin on the race mocks Sarahcuda and other top Republicans for backing a guy who was, it’s true, a terrible retail politician — even though they came thisclose to pushing him over the top.

Here’s Fred Thompson, another true conservative who invested a lot more than Palin did in the race, putting a happy face on the outcome.