Nicely stated.

Yet their connection was tested a year ago when several top contributors were dismayed that Mr. Obama seemed to be mired in a distant second place in the Democratic primary race, behind Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. Mr. Obama convened a meeting in a downtown Chicago office building with a small circle of advisers to question the approach of his team.

A few people who had Mr. Obama’s ear began quietly asking whether Mr. Axelrod and other aides were too close to the candidate to dispense dispassionate advice. In the end, Mr. Obama stuck with Mr. Axelrod and the rest of his team, and with the strategy they had devised.

“He is always at his best when we’re at our worst; that’s sustained us through some difficult times,” Mr. Axelrod said. “This is unusual for a national campaign, but everybody likes each other.”

When campaigns struggle, candidates often substitute their top players by showing them the door or by layering them with other strategists. But neither is the case with Mr. Obama. The team that surrounded him two years ago as he made his decision to run for president is the same group with him at the finish line.