After extensive audio-visual analysis and comparisons to old films archived in the labyrinthine bowels of the Mighty Corrente Building, we’re going on the record to reveal that Barack Obama’s top campaign official, David Axelrod, has been quietly replaced by Smokey the Parrot.

Judge for yourself with this footage from today’s press conference in Montana:

The Obama camp has yet to issue an official explanation, but an anonymous source assured us that the crackers and newspaper will be funded entirely by small private donors.

UPDATE: The Obama camp has blamed the odd appearance and behavior of their spokesman on a “microphone malfunction”; apparently, unable to hear the questions from the assembled reporters, David Axelrod began reading from Senator Obama’s prepared remarks for tomorrow’s scheduled rally in South Dakota. To back up their claims, Obama ‘08 cites the voice of David Gregory saying “Hello? Hello?” at 13 seconds. The veteran reporter’s questions were, unfortunately, drowned out by the chorus of kissing noises from the rest of the Washington press corps.  Read more