Politics
REUTERS/Jim Bourg (Obama), Mike Segar (Romney)
Barack Obama addresses his election night victory rally and Mitt Romney pauses as he delivers his concession speech.
David Axelrod, Obama's top campaign adviser, wrote in his new book that the 2012 Republican nominee solely attributed his loss to the black vote, according to an excerpt obtained by the New York Daily News.
Axelrod quoted Obama describing Romney's concession call.
"'You really did a great job of getting the vote out in places like Cleveland and Milwaukee,' in other words, black people,'" Obama allegedly said after the call, paraphrasing Romney. "That's what he thinks this was all about."
Obama reportedly told Axelrod that Romney expressed surprise at his own loss - despite polling showing the president a clear favorite during the election.
Additionally, Axelrod wrote that Obama was "unsmiling during the call, and slightly irritated when it was over."
Axelrod's book, "Believer: My Forty Years in Politics," is set to be released later this month. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.