Former Deputy White House Press Secretary Bill Burton on Monday slammed Democrats' criticism of President Barack Obama's performance in office, saying such comments could become "self-inflicted wounds."
He said party members need to stop criticizing and talk more about the administration's accomplishments.
"You've got Democrats out there saying how terrible the president is, and you've got other Democrats out there saying, 'Yeah, the president is not that great,'" Burton said on
MSNBC's "Ronan Farrow Daily."
The Huffington Post's Howard Fineman agreed, saying the criticism from Democrats "has further weakened the president." Obama "has been subjected to a billion dollars' worth of negative advertising with no response."
In general, Fineman said, the U.S. economy "has done pretty darn well in the last six months."
"We look a lot better than Europe does," he added.
As the election approaches, however, these arguments carry less and less weight with Obama administration alumni and other Democrats who depict the president as self-pitying and petulant.
"Obama's loathing for Washington" has "hardened into a sullen resignation at being trapped in a broken system he failed to change,"
Politico reported Sunday, citing interviews with people described as administration "veterans."
"I sense a certain fatalism there, and it's disturbing," a former adviser on Obama's campaign said. "There's a sense that 'I've tried everything, and look where it got me.' People misread it as disengagement. It's frustration. But who cares? It's a bad mindset."
"The bully pulpit is gone, maybe forever," another Obama administration veteran told Politico.
Even former Obama media chief David Axelrod, who rarely criticizes his former boss, said last month that there is "a theatrical nature to the presidency that he [Obama] resists."
Sometimes, Axelrod said, Obama "can be negligent in the symbolism," he added.