The Emanuelator
Thursday, November 6, 2008 at 08:58PM Barack Obama's first decision as President-Elect was an interesting and bold one.
By naming Rahm Emanuel as his Chief of Staff, he's signaling two things. First, he understands the importance of getting off to a fast start with Congress -- a lesson Bill Clinton failed to grasp until three years into his term. There are few people who understand the levers of Congress and the White House better than Emanuel.
But beyond that, it's also a giant F.U. to the Republicans in Congress. You'd have to search long and hard to find a more aggressive Democrat than Emanuel. The guy is maniacally partisan, and is not above playing scorched earth politics to get what he wants. Stories about his behavior while serving in the Clinton White House are legendary. If the Republicans were looking for an olive branch from the President-Elect, they just got a twig in the eye.
Obama promised to change the partisan tone in Washington, but you'd never know it from this appointment.
Reader Comments (5)
My friend Dave Stone's (a current Ketchum employee and political junkie) claim to fame: a few years ago he was at an annual Chicago festival calledLincoln Avenue Fest (drink a lot, listen to live bands, etc.). He and a few friends saw Rahm walking around with his family. One of Dave's friends went up to Rahm and told him that Dave (who is kind of shy and didnt want to go up to him) was a big fan.
Next thing he knew, Rahm walked up to Dave and said "your friends tell me you are too big a chicken shit to come up to me and say hello."
True story and very funny considering where Rahm is today...
Republicans storm back? I wish it were so, but I can't see it. Obama will make mistakes but he will get a a pass on most policy issues because of his age (young), historical significance (great), and symbolism (refutation of the alternative).
Huge swaths of the media and academia have a total stake in his success so any organized criticism will be seen as shallow, and called as much.
I wrote about the "happiness train leaving the station" today. There's too many people who were the institutional old guard opposition on board the train for some new opposition to launch a raid, at least for a long, long time.
Doug
www.dougist.com
Opps...That post up there was to another of your items...drat you NetNewsWire!
(It's never the operator, always the technology)
Sorry
What do you guys think of Palin's next chapter and the blame game going on now?
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