From what I understand, the principal job of David Axelrod is to be Barry's dirt-digger and chief hatchet man. Axelrod pretty much singlehandedly destroyed Jack Ryan during the 2004 elections in which Alan Keyes replaced Ryan. We all know that Keyes went down too, but we might possibly be assured that Keyes didn't lose the election because he was black.

No, I think Keyes lost because of his position on his form of reparations, which was to exempt black Americans from federal income tax for a couple of generations.
Or was it something that Axelrod did?
Not really sure, but we know for sure that Jack Ryan's custody records were released when they shouldn't have been and because he wanted to have sex with this then-wife in a public place (strip club), well, that pretty much ended Ryan's career. There is EVERY indication that Axelrod had everything to do with orchestrating that cute little number.