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The 'former Obama campaign consultant'

Marjorie Clifton is a Democratic strategist, principal of Clifton Consulting LLC and founder of Spike the Watercooler, a community website for women.

But on cable news, she is a "former Obama campaign consultant" -- a billing that confounds Obama campaign officials who say they have no recollection of her work.

"I spent four years working every aspect of communications on both Obama campaigns, and I never once came across Marjorie Clifton," a senior Obama campaign official told POLITICO. "I'd love to read the memos she apparently owes us!"

There are no memos; Clifton told POLITICO she spent "three weeks to a month" working on a project to keep people at the polls in Pennsylvania -- "mapping out polling sites... laying out beds" -- and said she worked "on an ongoing basis" to advise the campaign's offices of faith-based outreach and Hispanic outreach.

"My role was not in a paid capacity," she said.

And yet on Fox News Sunday this weekend, Clifton once again appeared above a chyron which read: "Former Obama Campaign Consultant. It is a title Clifton is given almost every time she appears on the network, from when she discussed Obama's "dipping" favorability among women in May 2012 to her recent appearance on Sean Hannity's "Great American Panel." She has similarly been described as a former consultant to the Obama campaign, albeit with less frequency, by CNN and MSNBC.

Clifton acknowledges that networks "pick and choose" titles depending on the topic, but she stands by the Obama campaign billing: "I would disagree with [the senior campaign official's] assessment. I am a consultant, I offer advice."

Fox News spokeswoman Irena Briganti did not respond to a request for comment.

Clifton is hardly the only one to travel, arguably undeservedly, under a political campaign's flag. On cable news today, the bar for a "consultant" title has reached an all-time low.