David Axelrod, who was Barack Obama‘s top strategist for both presidential election campaigns and his former White House senior adviser, has joined NBC News and MSNBC as senior political analyst. Axelrod began his career as a journalist, serving as a a political writer, columnist and City Hall bureau chief for the Chicago Tribune before stepping into politics in 1984. He was recently named director of the University of Chicago’s new Institute of Politics and a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Harris School of Public Policy. He joins the news networks’ team of analysts that includes former John McCain campaign strategist Steve Schmidt, Axelrod’s GOP counterpart during the 2008 elections; former RNC chariman Michael Steele; and former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell.