So it turns out that Rahm Emmanuel will be Obama's chief of staff. Politico has the definitive take:
President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.)
as his White House chief of staff is the latest demonstration of a
quality Obama showed repeatedly over the course of his campaign: He’s
willing to do what it takes to win.
If his goal had been to create a cordial bipartisan tone in Washington — much less a calm, profanity-free West Wing — Obama would have looked elsewhere.
If his goal had been to create a cordial bipartisan tone in Washington — much less a calm, profanity-free West Wing — Obama would have looked elsewhere.
The Emmanuel family are a fascinating bunch, as evidenced by this 1997 profile of the family.
Incidentally, whilst it's well known that Ari Emmanuel is the inspiration for Entourage's Ari Gold, Rahm himself was said to be the inspiration for The West Wing's Josh Lyman. That leads to this neat bit of symmetry, noticed by a commenter on Matthew Ygelsias' blog:
- 1998: Josh Lyman is modeled after Rahm Emanuel.
- 2004: Matt Santos is modeled after Barack Obama
- 2006: Matt Santos wins the presidency, and appoints Josh Lyman his Chief of Staff
- 2008: Barack Obama wins the presidency, and appoints Rahm his Chief of Staff.
Should these West Wing parallels continue, we should now expect Obama to name John McCain as his Secretary of State.
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