Don't Believe the Hype: Rahm Emanuel Not About to Step Down

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"Everyone from Slate to National Review is credulously citing a report in The Daily Telegraph that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is planning to leave after the midterm elections.

It's silly that a report from a unnamed source to a British newspaper with no sources to speak of in the White House would be given such credence today. The truth is this: Emanuel has said publicly and privately for months that if Rich Daley doesn't seek reelection (which he will determine at the end of the year) for mayor of Chicago, Rahm will move back home and jump in the race. He may leave his job then anyway, mostly because he's just tired. But he continues to enjoy Obama's full confidence and he has no political problem with the thrust of Obama's decisions. In fact, he has been very much a part of them.

Rahm told me for The Promise: "I begged the president not to do health care" in 2009. But once Obama decided to move ahead, Rahm worked tirelessly to get it done and took great satisfaction in the bill's signing. He is equally involved in everything else of consequence.

It's a sign of something wrong in the reporting apparatus of Washington that this British report is taken at at face value. Emanuel might leave next year, but not for the reasons of disillusionment the Brits say. It reminds me of when a British paper reported in the 1970s that President Carter was growing a beard to be more like Lincoln. Nice story. Got a lot of attention. Only problem: it's not true."

http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/06/21/don-t-believe-the-hype-rahm-not-about-to-step-down.html

all the US papers were happy to just jump on board. Idiotic.

It is summer now and the press always gets especially stupid during the summer. Missing white girls, shark attacks, etc.

the 'news' as reported by our mainstream media. Sadly, that mistrust is daily proven to be warranted. Over the last several years I've gleaned what I could from our homegrown sources, then compared reportage with foreign news venues; and, all too often, that foreign reporting turns out to be closer to the truth and eventually winds up getting mentioned as a footnote in NYT or on broadcasts. Are they always right? No. But they do lack the incentives to slant according to the wishes of the American corporations that own our media. Somewhere in my files I have the picture showing the front page of a British newspaper from November 2004, with the giant headline: How Can 52 Million People Be So Stupid?

It is what it is.


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And even if it was true, it doesn't matter. The damage has been done. And Rahm doesn't matter.

It was a wish left unfulfilled.

A rumor from an unnamed sources is reported as news nearly every day on cable news, online and elsewhere. Also, most of the media's justification of the Iraq invasion. Their sudden righteous anger is hard to swallow.

Part of Washington polictics is not just influencing what happens, but "why". If you start a rumor at the right time, sometime before something happens, you can connect the rumor to the fact. You say Rahm is going out a few months before he does, and you can establish a "reason". Doesn't have to be true, but the reason becomes hard to deny and so becomes a "contributing factor". That now becomes a factor in the what happens next.

THAT'S three dimensional chess.

...and nothing changed? Who would you blame then? At which point is it Obama's fault?

The Cossacks work for the Tsar.

They are not progressive enough. However, Rahm does know how to kick some ass.

It may indeed be nothing, or it may be that Rahm's sending out resumes right now, anticipating moving to a new job in a few months.

Chiefs of staff usually don't last very long - Bush went through several, as did Clinton.

The timing depends on the elections and how good or bad this administration is fairing. He's showing some cards, but as always, keeping the trump cards hidden.

COS is a demanding job...constantly butting heads and many others have exited after 2 years. The elections will determine which way Rahm goes. If Quinn loses as Illinois Governor, that opens the door for Rahm. In the meantime he fattens up on K Street, sitting on bank boards and speaking gigs. A nice cash out indeed.