The Agony and the Agony  Renowned political guru David Axelrod
can cap his career by helping Barack Obama win the White House.
But will it calm the forces driving him?  By Patrick T. Reardon
Tribune staff reporter  June 24, 2007   By 1984, while still in
his 20s, David Axelrod had already built an impressive career as
a star political reporter, columnist and City Hall bureau chief
for the Tribune, the largest and most influential newspaper in
Illinois.  It was his dream job. But he was unhappy.  Always
awash with doubts and anxieties, Axelrod would agonize over the
nuances of the stories he was writing, putting in long hours in
the city's wards doing research and then spending hours more at
the computer keyboard. But that was who he was.  Much more
troublesome to him was how his career had begun to plateau. He
was told that he would never be given the coveted title of
Tribune political editor and would have to make do with the
lesser designation of political writer under his byline.  Not
only that, but Axelr