Richly ironic: Yesterday in New Hampshire, David Axelrod criticized the economic proposals of the current GOP candidates as tired, saying they are based on the same principles that caused the country’s economic troubles in the first place.

“This isn’t new wine and old bottles,” Axelrod said. “This is old wine and old bottles.”

Old wine and old bottles? And he wasn’t talking about Obama’s jobs plan? Since when did stimulus spending become a new and innovative solution to a down economy?

But Axelrod didn’t stop there. In an interview with the Associated Press, he took direct aim at frontrunners Mitt Romney and Rick Perry. National Journal reports:

He criticized Perry for flaunting his record in Texas while the state has the highest rate of uninsured residents and some of the worst schools in the country, and Romney for attempting to define himself as an outsider.

“I don’t know how you define a professional politician, but running for office off and on for two decades seems to qualify,” Axelrod said.

Axelrod should be a little more careful: His comments only call to mind all the experience Obama still lacks — namely, in the private sector. Mitt Romney might not be quite the outsider he portrays himself as, but he’s turned a few bucks for profit.

Axelrod claims he knows Obama’s reelection will be an uphill battle — he said it would be a “titanic struggle” — but not even that magnitudinous phrase captures the full extent of the challenge in front of the incumbent.

“We have the wind in our face because the American people have the wind in their faces,” Axelrod said. “So this is going to be a titanic struggle. But I firmly believe we’re on the right side of the struggle.”

What he doesn’t understand is that, to many Americans, the administration is the wind in our faces. No wonder “Generic Republican” repeatedly beats Obama in hypothetical poll match-ups. Once the GOP coalesces around its candidate — no matter who it is — that Republican’s momentum will really mount. And if every criticism Obama’s team lobs at his opponent can be turned around on him, he won’t be able to weaken the GOP nominee much at all.

It’s time for some new wine and some new bottles — and that means change. It swept Obama into office — and it could sweep him out.