Axelrod: Coakley could have asked for help earlier

The White House would have helped out Martha Coakley's campaign earlier if she had only asked, White House senior adviser David Axelrod said today.

President Obama made a last minute campaign stop for Coakley on Sunday, but many Democrats wondered why he didn't make an earlier, stronger push.

"The White House did everything we were asked to do," Axelrod told reporters today, according go the Baltimore Sun. "I think if we had been asked earlier, we would have responded earlier."

As recently as a week before Obama's appearance, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said it was "not on our schedule" to campaign in the state the following week.

Axelrod also praised Scott Brown's "very clever campaign" and suggested there were "local issues at play."