Rahm the dud

[Hannah Bell]

If Rahm Emanuel has been (Obama's) strong right arm and, in the fawning words of a writer for the Daily Beast, “the man with the political grit and muscle to make the president's dreams come true”, then perhaps the President will fare better across the next two years fighting with his left hand only, and with a chief advisor at his side endowed with less muscle and bad language but more brains and strategic savvy...

Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, Walsh found that 13 were defeated, and only 8 won! And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Emanuel’s favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC.

Emanuel’s political calls in the elections were terrible, from the Massachusetts race for Ted Kennedy’s seat, which elevated the Tea Party from curiosity to powerbroker, to the handling of the Illinois and Pennsylvania senate races.The portrait of Emanuel in Woodward’s new book is anything but flattering, particularly in the treatment of national security advisor Jones. After Emanuel’s announcement that he was quitting the listing ship, one could conjecture that perhaps Clinton’s bail-out man, David Gergen, might get the call yet again, or maybe they'd haul Panetta in from CIA as replacement. But the job has gone to Rahm's number two, a relative unknown and it looks as though there's going to be a power vacuum with a lot of scrambling, perhaps for the exits, after the election...

http://www.counterpunch.org/

[tavalon]

1. I haven't been thinking of Obama as a one termer

but I have to wonder if he is?

[inna]

2. so, what was/is the reason for his departure?

i feel that there is a crucial piece of info missing, and i doubt it's the mayor thing.

[MineralMan]

3. Rahm Emanuel isn't in that job any longer, you know.

I can't see the utility in going after him after he's gone. Must be a slow news day, I guess.

[starroute]

4. The utility is in understand what went wrong

If Rahm royally screwed things up, I think we'd all like to see a change of course -- not merely a shift to Rahmism without Rahm. I say the more light that is shed on his bad decisions the better.

[jgraz]

5. Look forward, not back, eh?

After all, what's the point in actually learning from what happened .. um .. two days ago?

[lame54]

6. I heard if you do it with your left hand...

it's like someone else is fighting

[LWolf]

7. It would be a good thing

if Chicago made sure he didn't become their mayor.