Sometimes, a shake-up as severe as jettisoning your White House Chief of Staff, might give the appearance of an Administration lost. One in complete disarray. Obama's White House is not in complete disarray...but it is completely dismaying. Opinion here, is that firing Rahm Emanuel now will give a far different signal to Washington and the country. One that will benefit Obama and his Administration.
Missteps, wrong messaging, the appearance of incompetence at times - from a President and an administration hailed as being oh so smart...as well as just plain, shooting themselves in the foot in a myriad of instances, can be traced back to the first days of this Presidency. I bet if you stop reading and sit back and ponder, you'll come up with a good dozen, on your own. Time and space, prohibits me from actually listing them all here.
Accusations of Chicago style politics and outright thuggery, of the Administration's strong-arm tactics and shady backroom deals. The apparent disdain for the media and the propagandizing of the message. The demonizing of those who oppose them, to the point of dismissing a huge swath of their American constituency. On and on we could go.
Of the two men, Emanuel and Obama - when speaking of the Chicago way, of politics. Emanuel was clearly, the student and Obama, more the beneficiary of such tactics. Oh, Obama knew exactly how the game was played but to allow his own elevation to the ultimate goal, he needed also, to appear to be elevated above such things and someone like Emanuel, needed to be the actual practitioner of all the lessons learned, in Chicago.
But now, more than ever, the president needs to show, who really is in charge. As with the current Gulf Oil Spill debacle, Obama found himself having to overtly inject his authority over the continuing crisis, after weeks of the public, the punditry, as well as those within Washington and those on the ground in the Gulf states, wondering why he came off as so disengaged and deferring authority and responsibility to others.
Letting Rahm go now, would perfectly underscore to the country, his seriousness in how he sees his Presidency moving forward. Who Obama picks as a replacement is as crucial as the signal he'll give in giving Emanuel his pink slip. And believe me...this isn't coming from the perspective of someone, who is a big fan of Obama and his progressive, government expanding policies. I wish for him a one-term presidency and then, a succession of the right people in the job, to steer this country back to its founding principles and drive the progressive ideology and agenda back underground, at a minimum or ideally, vaporized from the American consciousness, altogether.
No. Not at all. This is an exercise in dealing with Obama's current reality. And, in dealing with this reality - let's indulge ourselves in some fantasy. Obama needs a Chief of Staff, cut from the same cloth as "Leo McGarry." The fictitious character in the once popular show, West Wing, played beautifully by the late John Spencer. Imperfect as we all are, McGarry was Chief of Staff in Jed (Martin Sheen) Bartlett's White House. He seemingly, handled the activities of an entire administration, with all its complexities and potential for disaster at every turn, while allowing his President to be, well...President. But, you always had the sense that Leo McGarry's every move, was done in service of his President. You felt that whenever he spoke, intuitively, he reflected the wishes of his boss. The two characters, President and Chief of Staff, were very close and went back a long way but, in the presence of his Boss, McGarry always addresed him as "Mr. President." Somehow, perhaps wrongly, I have an image of Emanuel calling President Obama, "Barack", in private. An interesting tidbit, is that the character played by Bradley Whitford, who was Deputy Chief of Staff, Josh Lyman, was based on Emanuel.
I think the dynamic of the Obama/Emanuel relationship, is that of Brothers, close in age, who work in the Family business together. And, regardless of whether the business may suffer and the Brother who holds the ultimate authority in doing what's best for the business...that Brother's unbreakable allegiance to Family will choose to struggle forward, while the business suffers, than to make the painful choice of removing his Brother from a position that is adversely affecting the other's ability to run a successful business.
A big part of bringing his presidency back, will be Obama's truly learning to govern from a far more centrist location, then he is right now. His far-left, extreme progressive agenda, notwithstanding - it's high time for Obama to learn the lesson, learned by all truly good Presidents. And that's to adapt your policies and leadership, that enable you to govern the entire population of America. Not just serve those, of one collective and inherently, narrow thought.
Now, all of this doesn't fall on the mere existence of Rahm Emanuel in Obama's White House. But, it would be a significant step in showing all of us, in America, that maybe this President is ready to stand on his own and really lead this country and truly be responsible...and not just mouth the words, when he finds himself up against it. To paraphrase Emanuel in, "Never letting a serious crisis go to waste..." Now would be the time for the President to thank him for all he's done and cut his ties, with Emanuel. Thus, showing all of us, both for and against, just what he's really made of and just maybe...make his last 32 months a lot better than his first 16.
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