Maybe it's just me, but White House Chief of Staff seems like a better gig than Mayor of Chicago. Is he doing this just for the kickbacks he'll be sure to get? LINK WASHINGTON — Edging closer to a Chicago mayoral bid, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel has begun talking to a larger field of potential rivals and touting a set of private poll numbers as a measure of his potential strength. Emanuel has not yet made a decision to run, but one possible opponent said after a meeting Tuesday night he came away with the clear message that Emanuel is likely to resign soon and announce his candidacy. "I got the impression it is very likely he is going to do this,'' said U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), who spoke to Emanuel for about half an hour at The Caucus Room, a Washington, D.C. restaurant. The meeting came at Emanuel's request, said Davis, who is also weighing a mayoral bid. "We talked about, if we were to become candidates, what kind of campaigning that should be done — that it's important to try and keep the city as harmonized as possible and that the city not become split and divided,'' Davis said. If Emanuel decides to enter the race to succeed retiring Mayor Richard Daley, he might leave the White House in a matter of weeks. One person close to Emanuel said Wednesday it is "very possible'' he will depart before the mid-term elections on Nov. 2. Emanuel would be the latest in a string of top advisors to leave President Obama's inner circle. Earlier this week, the White House announced one of the president's top economic aides, Lawrence Summers, will be stepping down to return to Harvard University. Two other high-level economic advisors, Peter Orszag and Christina Romer, already have left the administration. Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential nominee, Tweeted a comment on Emanuel's possible timetable: "Rahm's the smart one … bailing before Nov.'' she wrote. Emanuel commissioned a poll by Stanley Greenberg, a former advisor to ex-President Bill Clinton, and is telling some potential rivals that the results show he would be a strong candidate. That could be taken in two ways: as a simple exchange of information, or as a statement that Emanuel would be a formidable opponent. U.S. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said that using a poll to tout one's candidacy is a "time honored tradition.'' "If there's someone who knows the textbook, it's Rahm," added Gutierrez, who has begun circulating mayoral petitions but has not declared whether he will run. Davis said Emanuel told him that he "had some good poll numbers – he didn't say what they were. I think he was saying he had done some homework and that it all added to his evaluation that he would be a good candidate.'' U.S. Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), another potential mayoral candidate, met privately with Emanuel on Wednesday at a restaurant near the White House. In an earlier conversation, Emanuel also mentioned his poll numbers, Quigley said. "That's what candidates say,'' Quigley said in an interview. "Candidates don't say, 'I took a poll and I suck. Nobody knows me and nobody likes me.' '' He added that he did not believe Emanuel was trying to scare anyone out of the race. "He's a big dog,'' Quigley said. "Big dogs don't need to do that." Last week, Emanuel called Chicago Alderman Tom Tunney, telling him that he is still undecided about his future and was discussing the potential run with his family. "He expressed his interest in running" for mayor, Tunney said. "He had done some polling. His poll numbers were good." "I got the impression from him he is seriously considering it," Tunney added. "I told him, 'Well, good luck with your decision.' " Asked about Emanuel's plans, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday that President Obama "is not aware that he's made any decisions.'' Gibbs added that "we're still in the process of him making an ultimate decision.'' As long as Emanuel doesn't draw out his decision too much, he is not hurting the White House, some government experts said. "If he needs a few days or a few weeks to sort out his political future, I don't think that hurts the president,'' said Stephen Wayne, a government professor at Georgetown University. "We're in political waters from now to the midterm elections anyway.''
His family is still in Chicago, a while back there was a behind the scenes special about the administration and it was pretty obvious that it was hard for him to be away from his family and that there was some reluctance in taking the job. There was a feeling that he would inevitably leave.
Governor or Senator seems like a more worthy target for someone coming out of the White House if they are going to run. But, if he wants to do it....
Maybe, but the Mayor of Chicago is probably more powerful than the Governor of Illinois overall, and being a low ranking member of the Senate, particularly in it's current dysfunctional state, is a real step down from being his 4th ranking Democrat in the House, which is what he was before. Not to mention that there's no Governor or Senate seat available for awhile.
1) This guy is a politician. He's not a bureaucrat like Kissinger. He wants to be Senator then President one day. Being mayor of Chicago is the best position to make a run at US Senator or governor in Illinois. There is 0 way to make that transition from Chief of Staff. He wont have the fundraising for one thing. 2) If Obama goes down in flames in the midterm elections, Emanuel does not want to be in the vicinity to take collateral damage. This is Ari Gold's brother IRL he's keeping his eyes on the prize.
Maybe he should go be the mayor of Tel Aviv. After all he volunteered for a foreign army. That is treason in my book.
He didn't volunteer for a foreign army. It's my understanding that he was a civilian volunteer working for the Israel Defense Forces. As long as they're not at war with the US, how is that treason? Would you consider it treason if a dual citizen served in the military in his other nation?
Yes. What if a 3rd generation Iraqi-American from Dearborn, Michigan had volunteered to serve in Kuwait?
Is your book titled I Really Don't Want to the United States Win Any Wars Against Large, Powerful Adversaries, Ever?
What does a third generation Iraqi-American serving in the Kuwaiti army have to do with a dual citizen serving in the army for one of his nations (e.g., a citizen of both Israel and the US serving in the Israeli army)? If you're trying to compare this to the Emanuel situation, you're ignoring the part of my post where I pointed out that he didn't actually serve in the military for a foreign nation.
A third-generation citizen of the US can also be a dual citizen of another country, given they can prove their familial ties to that country. I was addressing your question of "Would you consider it treason if a dual citizen served in the military in his other nation?"
I can see how it wouldn't be illegal, but should this person serve as one of the most powerful people in the country? How can one say his loyalties are all for the USA and not Israel?
Again, unless you can show me proof to the contrary, he did not serve in the Israeli military. As for his loyalties, I think there may be plenty of people running our government who are just as loyal, if not more so, to Israel as the US.
Obama says Rahm must decide on mayoral race quickly (CNN) – President Barack Obama has a message for his chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel: It's time to make up your mind on running for mayor of Chicago. "Rahm will have to make a decision quickly, because running for mayor in Chicago is a serious enterprise, and I know this is something he's thinking about," Obama told NBC's Matt Lauer Monday morning, adding that his top aide had yet to tell him whether he intended to seek the post long held by Richard Daley. Asked if he would endorse an Emanuel mayoral bid, Obama said it's too soon to make that decision. "I have said I think he would be an excellent mayor, but until he makes a decision I'm not going to be making decisions about how I'm going to approach it." Two people close to Emanuel told CNN's Ed Henry there is now a good chance the top White House aide will step down from his post as early as October to focus full-time on running for Mayor of Chicago. There is some urgency to the situation because candidates must gather 12,500 signatures by Nov. 22 ahead of the Feb. 22 primary in the race. But the people close to Emanuel stressed to CNN that the chief of staff has not made a firm decision yet to run for Mayor, though these sources did indicate that the former Congressman from Chicago has all but decided to take the plunge One person close to Emanuel added that the highly-respected White House Deputy Chief of Staff Pete Rouse is the favorite to take over as chief of staff on a temporary basis in order to give President Obama more time to find a long-term replacement. But other people with knowledge of the situation said it is too early to determine who will replace Emanuel short-term or long-term because the process is so fluid at this point.
