The Rahm Emanuel strategy was to cut deals with power brokers in Washington and ignore what liberals wanted. This was best illustrated when he called liberals "fucking retarded" for trying to push for real change. His attitude was that you could ignore progressive demands because -- where could they go?!
Well, it turns out that the answer to that question is -- home. Now there are several polls out showing a 5 to 10% difference between registered Democratic voters and likely Democratic voters. Democrats are basically tied with the Republicans on registered voters. But they get clobbered on likely voters. Why? Because voters who are disillusioned aren't likely to vote.
Why are they disillusioned Rahm might ask when we gave them health care reform and financial reform? The answer is because they're not nearly as dumb as you think they are. You think you can just call something reform and people are going to buy it? That's not going to fly, especially in the new media age.
We all know that Obama struck the same exact deals with the big drug companies that Bush did. Obama had campaigned against those specific agreements, but once he got into office he was convinced that we couldn't upset those deals and that we just had to shoot for a tiny bit of change. That we couldn't change the way Washington ran, we could just play the old Washington game a little better. That is the essence of Rahm Emanuel.
And those games have now left the Democrats with a gigantic deficit in voter enthusiasm. Rahm was supposed to be some sort of political genius. But it has turned out to be the exact opposite. He blew it. He had no idea what he was talking about and it looks like his party is about to lose a massive amount of seats. Why? Because Rahm was wrong, completely and utterly wrong.
Will they learn the right lesson from this and actually try to deliver on change in the next two years after this election? Very likely not. Instead, they will get someone new to come and whisper in their ear that the president must play the same old Washington games again and that the election was a sign to go further right. That'll be another disaster and you can trace that back to the original Rahmism -- the belief that power must be accommodated, real change is not possible and that your own voters should be ignored. That is what is 100% wrong and what got the Democrats into this mess in the first place.
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Rahm did more damage as DCCC chairman than as Chief of Staff. He built a majority dependent on Blue Dogs, so it was pre-programmed for dysfunction. He didn't invent the filibuster that caused health care to be watered down, but he did recruit the House members who torpedoed a vote on ending tax cuts for the rich. Now, he's presenting progressives with their best opportunity to build their strength and erase that enthusiasm gap: by campaigning against him in Chicago.
Truth 'dat.
Corporate rham has always been a fake.
I have always seen Rahm as Obama's bad cop. The President needs someone to get down in the mud with Repubs and the Blue Dogs so that he doesn't have to. It allows him to stay above the fray. The mud and the fray aren't his style.
Let's face it: the Repubs are a mean bunch with an even meaner right-wing media supporting them. We need someone like Rahm who can to toe-to-toe with the meanest of the mean. He's very smart, and he knows the politics of D.C. intimately. Don't be tempted to think he doesn't know what he's doing.
All this armchair quarterbacking is unproductive. I trust this President. He's smarter than the people who hate him. He's a genuinely good person, and he genuinely cares about us. We need to give him more time to make this work. It's going to take a lot longer than two years to reverse the damage done in the Bush years. No one could have done a better job of turning things around than this guy.
Rahm is leaving, and he's probably run his course. But I don't think it was a bad idea to hire him. A crew of nothing but nice guys would have gotten eaten alive by these nasty rightwingers.
I seriously doubt that it's the clock. Progressives aren't stupid; we know that change takes time. No one expected "Radical change," just some genuine change. The overall tone and strategy were unproductive early on, but Rahm or the President or someone decided that they'd stay the course with it. If Rahm is a bad cop, it's not because he fought for the agenda while Obama stayed above the fray, it's because he liked bribery and extortion. Bribe the voter with lukewarm change, extort the base (i.e. expect them to pay up with votes and supprot because the Other Guys were so bad).
Legislatively this administration has managed to get a lot done. And quickly. It's not about the numbers on the list of bills or on the clock, it's the whole approach.
Thank God, most people still know that opinions are not facts.
Just because, one has said something, doesn't make it factual.
Internet is a curse and a blessing.
We all can be read and heard across the globe. Right, wrong or false in formations are spewed instantaneously. That is the course.
You may be right, that Ceng may be over the top a little on his rhetoric, but there is an incredible difference between FDR and Obama. FDR went toe-to-toe with those that opposed him and got real change. That is something that is missing in this administration.
What we we really squandered here was opportunity for change. We had, meaning the Democrats, an solid majority, one that could enact change that really helped, and we've let is slip away as the rhetoric on the other side of the aisle drowns out the positive messages of the little steps.
If you have the time, read my new blog here at Huffington Post entitled "Our Electorate: America's Greatest Challenge!" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-worth/restructuring-america-our_b_710056.html I think you'll better understand Ceng's extreme disappointment with Rahm and with the President.
Your thoughts are right on. read my newest article, "Our Electorate: America's Greatest Challenge!" here on Huffington Post" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-worth/restructuring-america-our_b_710056.html
There is a distinct possibility we've lost the chance for real change and if the GOP should happen to become the majority again, as I say at the bottom of the article, God help us all!
If you've got a nice steak, and I've got a steaming pile of dog sh*t, combining the two won't be a good thing! And after the 2008 election, the Republicans had nothing but a big steaming pile of dog sh*t!
Most of the time, Americans like the parties to work together, we LIKE bipartisanship. Then a bad time comes, and Americans DON'T like bipartisanship anymore, they like LEADERSHIP!! And Obama could have gotten EVERYTHING done if he'd had the cojones to stand up to the Republican opposition!
I believe Obama is a smart guy who chose dull guys to be keepers of the gates. Why? I haven' t a clue.
I've gotta hope that this really will change... or that President Obama will get back to listening to the people, and remembering who he is and why he ran for president....
Please Mr. Obama, remember we the people who voted for change we can believe in. Now the GOPers are running on "change"... as with everything else, they've hijacked the dems message, and made it their own, w/ some degree of success.
Please say it ain't so!!!!