David Axelrod, Barack Obama’s former campaign director, spoke about his life in politics and his part in crafting Barack Obama’s iconic “Yes We Can” campaign slogan on Thursday, addressing an audience of almost 500 students at Graham Chapel.

Washington University Political Review (WUPR) brought Axelrod, who played a significant role in crafting each of Obama’s campaign strategies, to campus as part of the Student Union Speaker Series.

Former senior advisor to the president David Axelrod speaks about his introduction to and experience in Democratic politics. His talk, sponsored by Wash. U. Political Review, nearly packed Graham Chapel Thursday.

Speaking on not only his own experiences, but also the upcoming 2016 presidential election and general political views, Axelrod provided students with insight into the inner workings of the American political system.

For WUPR co-editor-in-chief and senior Aryeh Mellman, Axelrod topped the list of potential speakers from the start because of his experience as a campaign advisor and particularly his work with Obama.

“You can tell when you speak to him [Axelrod] or when you look at him that he’s very discerning about politics. He knows exactly what he’s talking about, and he’s not swept up by conventional wisdom,” Mellman said.

A large part of this experience came working with the current commander in chief, and Axelrod shared his first memories of the president.

“When I first met Barack Obama, I was really impressed because he was obviously really smart—he’d just come off of being president of the Harvard Law Review,” he told the crowd. “He could’ve written his ticket at any corporation or law firm in America, but instead he came back to Chicago to run a voter registration drive and practice civil rights law at a small, progressive law firm.”

When Axelrod eventually joined the then-senator’s campaign team, he began by branding the campaign with one of its most famous messages.

“When we were shooting our first commercial, [Obama] ended it with ‘Can we change Washington? I’m Barack Obama, and I approve this message to say yes we can,’” Axelrod said. “That was the first time he had used that phrase, and I loved it because it was inclusive, and it fit everything we were about.”

Once WUPR executives decided they wanted Axelrod to speak, they appealed to Student Union for funding.

“We basically said the same thing to SU that we discussed amongst ourselves,” Mellman said. “That there’s a presidential election coming up, that it’d be worthwhile to have an expert in that area come and speak to us, particularly someone who is interested in working with students, and they were totally on board with that.”

Axelrod’s lecture mixed specific anecdotes of his time in politics with more general sentiments about the political system.

“I think it’s really heartening for college students to see that people involved in politics at the highest level do believe in idealism, because I think college students either tend to be very idealistic or very cynical. So it was great to see someone so hopeful for the future,” freshman attendee Morgan Anker said.

Axelrod discussed some of the ongoing political campaigns, noting that Hillary Clinton’s tendency to focus on her own experiences—in both 2008 and 2016—instead of speaking more generally tends to alienate her from voters.

Senior and executive director for WUPR Hannah Waldman said his comments on Trump were especially interesting.

“[Axelrod said] Trump doesn’t believe half of the things that he says,” Waldman said. “But he does it because he knows it will appeal to voters, and I thought that was really fascinating.”

Mellman believes that Axelrod’s visit will have a lasting impact on campus.

“[Students] can pick an issue, pick a cause, and just keep working at it for a long time and you may very well get somewhere,” Mellman said.

Overall, Mellman thought the event was a success.

“Although Axelrod is a pretty well-known name for those who are pretty into politics, I didn’t know he had such broad name recognition outside of that, so I was originally a little nervous about that,” he said. “Ultimately, I thought the event couldn’t have gone more perfectly from top to bottom.”