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Good Riddance


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The disaster of this hiring could hardly be overestimated.

 

Sources: Emanuel leaving White House on Friday

Associated Press

 

CHICAGO – Rahm Emanuel will resign as White House chief of staff on Friday and will begin his campaign for Chicago mayor by meeting with voters in the city on Monday, two sources familiar with Emanuel's plans said.

 

The two people, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt Emanuel's announcement, said Thursday that he will return to Chicago over the weekend and begin touring neighborhoods on Monday.

 

"He intends to run for mayor," one of the people told The Associated Press.

 

Both people said they did not know when Emanuel would make an official announcement about his mayoral bid but that he would launch a website with a message to Chicago voters in the near future.

 

Emanuel's plans have been the source of widespread speculation both in Chicago and Washington, D.C. ever since Mayor Richard Daley announced this month he would not seek re-election. In an April television interview, Emanuel had called it "no secret" he'd like to run for mayor.

 

Daley, who has held the mayor's job since 1989 and carried on a family dynasty, surprised many with his announcement. The choice for Emanuel suddenly became whether he would make a dash for the political job he has openly coveted, at a cost of uprooting his family again and quitting his post of national influence sooner than he thought.

 

When he ultimately announces his candidacy, Emanuel instantly becomes the most recognizable name in what is already a crowded field of candidates and possible candidates. Already with well over $1 million in his war chest and his well documented ability to raise huge amounts of money for political candidates around the country, Emanuel"s campaign would be extremely well funded.

 

Other possible candidates include Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who has made a name for himself in the Chicago area for suing Craigslist, among other things; former U.S. Sen. Carol Moseley Braun; at least one state senator and a city alderman.

 

A number of African Americans besides Moseley Braun are considering running, including Rep. Danny Davis and James Meeks, a state senator and prominent black minister. Black ministers, politicians and others have discussed throwing their support behind a single candidate.

 

A number of possible candidates, including Moseley Braun, Davis, Meeks and Dart, are in the process of collecting the 12,500 signatures necessary to win a spot on the February ballot.

 

Those running against Emanuel are sure to label him an outsider, and Emanuel will counter by stressing his ties to the city, particularly his tenure in Congress representing the district that includes Chicago's North Side.

 

In Washington, Emanuel's departure, though expected by the political world for days now, is still an unquestioned loss for Obama. The president has counted on Emanuel's intensity, discipline and congressional relationships to keep the White House focused and aggressive. The job comes with nearly unrivaled pressure and power.

 

Obama is expected to install senior adviser Pete Rouse, a calm White House presence with his own seasoned understanding of how Washington work, to serve as interim chief of staff. The president is likely to choose a permanent chief of staff after the Nov. 2 midterm elections.

 

Top contenders are Rouse, deputy national security adviser Tom Donilon and Ron Klain, the chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, according to aides close to the president.

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Yep. Rahm was the poster-boy for the incremental pragmatist approach that's characterized an ineffectual first two years. You don't give away half of what you want before you even start the negotiations. The Bushies set the bar for "getting shit done" and the political and institutional landscape reflects it. Rahm was instrumental in squandering the enthusiasm Obama had coming in that is now irreplaceable. Muddling through is the best we can hope for now. Wake me up in '12.

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Yep. Rahm was the poster-boy for the incremental pragmatist approach that's characterized an ineffectual first two years. You don't give away half of what you want before you even start the negotiations. The Bushies set the bar for "getting shit done" and the political and institutional landscape reflects it. Rahm was instrumental in squandering the enthusiasm Obama had coming in that is now irreplaceable. Muddling through is the best we can hope for now. Wake me up in '12.

 

Whew, looks like we're finally done blaming Bush then. Rahm, the new boogieman.

 

He's probably Al Kaida.

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"I'm not looking to pick another fight with Rahm Emanuel, but the contempt with which he held the progressive wing of the party was devastating and incredibly demoralizing," Howard Dean said. "That's basically saying to your own people -- you got us here, now FU."

 

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Whew, looks like we're finally done blaming Bush then.

 

It's hard to imagine a more focused, more capable, more effective administration. Of course, they drove us off a fucking cliff but that doesn't mean they weren't stone cold sober, eyes open, hands firmly on the wheel.

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Rahm was instrumental in squandering the enthusiasm Obama had coming in that is now irreplaceable.

I think Obama himself set the tone of trying to work with the republicans - he was very pragmatic and compromise-oriented in Chicago and thought that would work. Rahm on the otherhand is a rip-your-head-off-shit-down-your-neck sort of guy.

 

I was for Hillary who wouldn't have wasted a word on the republicans before starting to break arms and legs.

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Hillary is a republican in a democrat costume.

Obama has failed to prosecute a single Bush administration traitor or felon and has kept in place or expanded any number of corruptions of the Constitution and Bill of Rights and the additional executive powers acquired under Bush. Maybe the outcome would have been similar under Hillary, but there would be a devastating trail of republicans with broken bones paying for it.

 

Hard to think of a single goal Obama hasn't been prepared to 'compromise' away. It's been a ZERO vision administration for all the campaign talk. From my perspective Obama gave it away before he said word one and that the campaign rhetoric was just that as I knew it was going to be.

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Yep. Rahm was the poster-boy for the incremental pragmatist approach that's characterized an ineffectual first two years. You don't give away half of what you want before you even start the negotiations. The Bushies set the bar for "getting shit done" and the political and institutional landscape reflects it. Rahm was instrumental in squandering the enthusiasm Obama had coming in that is now irreplaceable. Muddling through is the best we can hope for now. Wake me up in '12.

 

"Waiting for Superman."

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Yep. Rahm was the poster-boy for the incremental pragmatist approach that's characterized an ineffectual first two years. You don't give away half of what you want before you even start the negotiations. The Bushies set the bar for "getting shit done" and the political and institutional landscape reflects it. Rahm was instrumental in squandering the enthusiasm Obama had coming in that is now irreplaceable. Muddling through is the best we can hope for now. Wake me up in '12.

 

"Waiting for Superman."

 

 

If the compromise is swimming in the shallow edge of the cesspool rather than the middle it's a choice I would prefer to avoid. I'll go with ethics, conviction, and someone with a spine, thank you.

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Today, Oct 1st: In our view, nobody could be worse than was Rahm Emmanuel as Chief of Staff; whoever replaces him will be an improvement. Yes, Rahm Emmanuel has a reputation for being tough, for use of bully tactics against opposition, but in practice he consistently caved to the Republicans while using his bully pulpit against the progressive left. He's going to Chicago now, and we will be waiting for him. -- Adam Green, BoldProgressives.org

 

"He's a cancer on the Democratic Party. Democrats' current 2010 situation is due to a weak Rahm Emanuel mentality that says water down real reform at the urging of Republicans and corporations, thus making Democratic reform less popular with voters than the real deal would have been. If Democrats had passed the overwhelmingly-popular public option and broken up the big banks when they had the chance, they'd be cruising for a landslide victory right now."

 

 

 

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