Rahm Emanuel is not a centrist

For all of you who are afraid of Rahm Emanuel, perhaps you haven't bothered to check what this guy is all about? No one is going to be perfect for all of us but Emanuel is far from being a centrist. Barack Obama selected Emanuel for a variety of reasons - a Chief of Staff must work with a president constantly - A good chief of staff is ready 24 hours a day to assist the president and deal with tough situations. Emanuel was selected because Obama feels he is the best fit and Obama trusts him. You don't have to like him at all but the president does have to like him.

Give our next president the benefit of the doubt, at least for now. One reason you should like Emanuel is because the GOP hates him so damned much.

For me? I voted for a man who I believe can lead us out of this darkness and because I trust his judgement.



Check here: http://www.ontheissues.org/IL/Rahm_Emanuel.htm

he's the right man for the job.

The infallible Obama.

sour grapes... My candidate did not win b.s. :eyes:

Thanks for posting. I'm concerned about hearing that he cost four congress people their jobs by convincing them to go to the right on immigration and that he's against the 50 state strategy although I have no reliable sources for those things.

that stupid map thing is from a right-wing Libertarian outfit.

See the difference in placement of Obama here (on that map he shows up near where they have Emmanuel):

...which is of course total BS.

Since the point at which the two lines cross COULD JUST AS EASILY and INFORMATIVELY be placed between Richardson and McCain thereby placing all blue dots but Gravel on the Left and most in the Left-Lib quadrant and all th red ones on the right. Who decides where the origin should go? I can't think of any objective determinant of that point but here are a few non-arbitrary ones...

The center-point of US public opinion as determined by 40 years of American National Election Studies surveys and elections which suggest that the median voter is someplace between Democratic and Republican policy positions...

Some equidistant point in the middle of the ELECTED representatives in the data field (leaving crackpots like Nader outside of the relevant data)


edit typo

the US is an extremely right-wing country, by global standards.

The point of this argument is somehow that Emanuel is some kind of Right-wing character. Sure, from the perspective of Che Guevara, Casto and Chavez that might be true. But from the perspective of American voters and considering the usual range of American elected officials (i.e. everyone who counts) this is a boldfaced lie propagated by folks who are more interested in sitting around singing 'The Internationale' than actually accomplishing anything in Washington.

I'm frankly sick of the loony left in our party (and willing to smack them down). I have long thought centrist republicans SHOULD have smacked down their own Fascist Right, but THEY didn't and look where THEIR party ended up? Dominated by out-of-touch cranks and electorally doomed for a generation!

If Rahm is to centrist for you.... too GD bad...get with the program the first rule of which is: 1) Keep the RW nutjobs out of office. Rule 2 is: pursue as progressive a set of policies as you reasonably can without endangering rule 1. Rahm will do this.

I'm just pointing out that he is in fact a centrist and not a leftist.

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If you look at his voting - he is clearly a liberal.

He is far from being anything like a right of center person as many on this board seem to thin he is.

We weren't such reactionaries before the Bush-Cheney coup d'etat.

I don't know any real life Democrat that ends up in the blue square, and I highly doubt the methodology used to place these politicians.

war on drugs? Death penalty? Law and order? Bill Clinton falls solidly in the economic right/authoritarian quadrant, what with his free trade policies and putting a hundred thousand more police on the streets, intensifying the war on drugs, etc. The centre of American politics has shifted pretty far to the right in the last 30 or 40 years.

from Giuliani. The people at political compass that enter in the data are using a flawed methodology.

ON EDIT: Every person I know that calls themselves a Democrat is in the green square. Most are way down in the SW corner of the green square. I am not as liberal as Dennis Kucinich. Yet Kucinich is hardly even in the green square, and I always end up in the extreme SW corner?

Bull.

Shit.

When Democrats fill out PC's questionnaire, they end up in the green square. When PC fills out the questionnaire on behalf of Democratic politicians, they always end up in the blue square barely different from Republicans.

Bull.

Shit.

IMO the reason is that the language of political discourse is different in the US then in Europe. On important difference is that in Europe calling yourself a socialist isn't political suicide, here in the US progressives are forced to use centrist language to explain progressive legislation so we don't trigger the anti-socialist prejudices, this makes American liberal politicians look far more conservative then they really are.

PC places me at about -8 on economics and -5 on authoritarianism/libertarianism, and although I consider myself a socialist I am not really "far left" by any means, I am actually quite conservative by temperament.

built by Karl Rove.

IMO differences in the language of political discourse between the US and Europe makes US politicians seem farther right compared to European politicians then they really are.

Dennis Kucinich is more of a centrist...

Okay...

sure he is.

btw - I love the guy but by no normal standard is he close to the middle.

...or a left-handed shortstop. The CoS works for the President, at the President's pleasure. Unless you have a uniquely passive or inept president, it doesn't matter who the CoS is. James Baker and Mike Dever were unusual, because Reagan didn't actually do most of his job.

The powerful -- like Rove -- will exercise their power regardless of the title they hold. And chiefs of staff are often nebbishes -- Andy Card and Josh Bolten were Bush's chiefs of staff -- they were the people actually were running things? IIRC, Card was the guy who got sent out for cheeseburgers.

This has already gotten attention far out of proportion to its actual significance.

that even came close to saying I cared what dogma the guy holds close, if any?

I find all the "I'm scared of who Obama picked as chief of staff" threads to be strange since they are all over the map.

Chief of staff is the guy who runs interference for the POTUS.

And he may very well be the guy who drives to Burger King. :)

So many people seem very confused about what the CoS does.

His job is to facilitate and move forward Obama's directives.

He's not liberal, he's center-left. He worked on Clinton's welfare legislation and NAFTA.

Center, Center-left, Center-right whatever. No one is going to agree 100%.