David Axelrod, president-elect Barack Obama’s chief strategist, has agreed to go with his client to the White House, George Stephanopoulos reports.

Axelrod is what you could describe as Obama’s Karl Rove. He is a master campaigner and image builder. He helps politicians win elections. That, and nothing more, was and will remain his role.

He will, Stephanopoulos says, become Obama’s Senior Adviser in the White House.

The Politico reported about this possibility more than a week ago, arguing that bringing Axelrod with him may make a lot of sense for Obama, an image builder and strategist is always useful for a president, but also pointing out that the last person to use one specific strategist this often was George W. Bush, and the strategist’s name was Karl Rove.

Rove has according to many politicized the White House to an unprecedented degree. Many colleagues of Axelrod and Democratic advisers told Politico last month that they feared that Axelrod would politicize the White House as well, if only because he would draw the attention and focus of reporters and Republicans alike.

Not only does Axelrod remind people of Rove because of his profession, but also because of the central role he has played in the Obama campaign and the high degree of confidence Obama has in him. As Politico put it in the October 27 article linked to above, Axelrod is the only strategist having Obama’s ear. His words go unchallenged.

Nonetheless, it could very well be that Obama will surround himself by other strategists as well, who will give him a different take on it all, and it could also be that both Obama and Axelrod will purposefully try to keep ’small politics’ out of the White House.

Thus far, however, those who argue that Obama is not surrounding himself with the people a moderate (liberal) statesman would normally surround himself with could make a stronger case.

Nonetheless, Obama has only just begun building his team. Many other positions remain open, positions that could be filled by moderate, practical, and less ‘political’ individuals, or even by moderate Republicans.