Ed Miliband unleashes the digital attack dogs

The Evening Standard writes:

We have already had a foreign manager of the England football team; perhaps it was only a matter of time before all the political parties turned abroad too. Last week David Axelrod, President Obama’s campaign mastermind, was appointed as Labour’s strategic adviser. He will take on the Tories’ Australian election chief Lynton Crosby, their ex-Obama strategist Jim Messina, and Nick Clegg’s director of strategy Ryan Coetzee, a South African.

And goes on to profile some key individuals:

Austin Rathe
The Lib-Dems’ head of member and supporter development was prominent in last year’s key Eastleigh by-election. Well regarded in the party, where he has worked on campaigns since 2007.

Craig Elder
Officially online communities editor, the youthful Scot who heads the Conservatives’ digital operation also did so in 2010. Between elections he did two years as head of digital at communications consultancy Blue Rubicon until wooed back by the Tories. Former Blue Rubicon colleague and Lib-Dem blogger Mark Pack says that Elder’s appointment “shows they are planning to take digital very seriously”.

As for my own views on David Axelrod’s appointment: