David Axelrod and others who have worked closely with Obama were less keen to praise Hillary's debate performance. | Getty | Getty The Obama alumni peanut gallery fires spitballs at Clinton

Democratic insiders were nearly unanimous in their adulation of Hillary Clinton’s debate performance Tuesday night. But one notable faction read from a different post-debate playbook: Obama campaign alums.

The top strategists who helped President Barack Obama topple Clinton in 2008 and win reelection in 2012 breezed past the pleasantries raining down on Clinton from other corners of the Democratic establishment and coupled them with blunter assessments.


“Clinton had a great night, but [Bernie] Sanders winning the focus group and online polls, but losing the pundits is reminiscent of Obama in 07-08,” said Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama, in a post-debate tweet reminding Democrats that Clinton's perceived invulnerability has collapsed before.

The president's far-flung diaspora also spent the post-debate hours pointing out the Clinton campaign’s shortcomings and her few missteps in the debate.

David Axelrod, Obama’s top political strategist, noted that “Clinton made a few mistakes,” and he listed her mischaracterization of her position on the Obama administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which she claimed she hadn’t fully supported in the past before coming out against it this week.

“That isn't true and was sloppy, giving her opponents another proof point in their assault on her trustworthiness,” Axelrod wrote in an otherwise praiseful CNN column that posted Wednesday morning. He also described a “weak answer” Clinton gave on her opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline and suggested that she contradicted herself when she named Republicans as her “enemies” and then pledged in her closing statement to unite the country.

They were subtle reminders of the once bitter feuding between the Obama and Clinton camps that arose after their pitched 2008 primary fight. When Obama surged past Clinton in Iowa and came close to clipping her in New Hampshire that year, the two Democrats spent the next few months sniping at each other while Obama maintained a persistent lead. Clinton's refusal to bow out after Obama's victory created a rift that carried into the administration after she became his secretary of state.

On the 2007 campaign trail, former President Bill Clinton routinely derided Obama's candidacy and the Obama team developed a character-focused strategy to beat Hillary Clinton that her GOP rivals are still employing today. Hours before Tuesday's debate, The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza published an infamous October 2007 campaign memo detailing how Obama's team planned to go after Clinton, in terms that are echoed in Axelrod and Pfeiffer's assessments today.

Clinton, cognizant of her onetime rivalry with the president, reminded Democrats Tuesday night that despite their differences, Obama appointed her secretary of state in 2009. She repeatedly embraced his leadership, earning hearty applause from the Democratic audience.

Several Obama loyalists were enthusiastic about Clinton’s debate win and jabbed at her rivals during post-debate spin.

“Commanding night for @HillaryClinton. Showed again her vision, leadership. Good sign for Dems,” tweeted Jim Messina, Obama’s former deputy chief of staff and a veteran campaign aide.

David Plouffe praised Clinton in a tweet as “someone who can win a gen elex” and wondered whether Republicans could produce a candidate capable of winning swing states like Nevada, Colorado, Ohio and Virginia. Obama ally Stephanie Cutter needled Clinton’s top rival, Sanders, for declaring that he isn’t “a pacifist” during the debate. And Ben LaBolt, another former Obama aide, ripped Sanders for futility in Congress, noting that he “passed nearly nothing.” Obama alumni Bill Burton and Jon Favreau were complimentary of Clinton as well.

But there was a clear divide. Even among those Obama allies who praised Clinton’s performance, there were overt shots at Clinton’s longer-term strategy.

“I wonder if the nameless @HillaryClinton supporters will stop promoting the stupid strategy of abandoning NH after this performance,” tweeted Mitch Stewart, who ran Obama’s 2008 Iowa operation and developed his battleground-state strategy in 2012.

Pfeiffer, too, added that “the person who advised Hillary to do less debates” must be in trouble.

Jon Lovett, a former Obama speechwriter, offered some backhanded praise: “It still feels pretty true that the only person who could beat Hillary Clinton is Barack Obama.”

The president evidently agrees: In a much-noted exchange during Sunday's interview on "60 Minutes," interviewer Steve Kroft asked Obama: "Do you think if you ran again, could run again, and did run again, you would be elected?"

"Yes," Obama responded, with zero hesitation.