Hildebrand Says Dems Face Slaughter

Steve Hildebrand, a gay Democratic strategist who was one of Barack Obama's lead advisers during the 2008 campaign, says there's a good chance Democrats will get "slaughtered" in the midterm election this fall.

"I think that there is a real shot we [Democrats] are going to get slaughtered in the elections this fall if we aren't leading the efforts to reform Washington," he told CNN. "It's what we campaigned on in '06 and '08, and if voters don't see that change, we haven't lived up to that promise."

Hildebrand, who lives in South Dakota, was in Washington to meet with the president's senior adviser, David Axelrod. "Voters want solutions, but voters know that it starts with getting money out of politics first," he said, explaining his support of the Fair Elections Now Act, which would limit federal campaign contributions to $100. "I'm going to push that with David, I'm going to push that with anyone that will listen."

Despite warnings of a slaughter at the ballot box, Hildebrand gives the president a B-plus so far and is especially pleased with the work Obama did to pass the hate-crimes law. "When the president signed the bill, the hate-crimes [bill] last fall, it was the first piece of legislation even in the history of Congress to affirm the rights of gay people in this country," he said.

Read the full CNN story here. See video of the interview below.