“This is the most unfathomable Republican field in my lifetime,” Axelrod said. “I don’t think anybody in the media or in either party can tell you with any degree of certainty who the Republican nominee will be.”

He pointedly praised one of the leading contenders, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, in a way that spotlighted Romney’s vulnerability within the GOP for signing a state health care law that parallels the new federal law in some ways.

Romney “did some interesting things there on health care, you know,” Axelrod said. “We got some good ideas from him.”