Drama Club: How Obama handles people

[CrimsonWhite]

I'm not really a fan of The New Republic, but this one is interesting.

The morning after the presidential election, a group of top Obama staffers and consultants gathered for brunch at a restaurant a few blocks from their Chicago headquarters. The mood was understandably emotional, and, before long, chief strategist David Axelrod rose to offer a valedictory. According to one person in the room, Axelrod lavished praise on his operatives for their discretion, for their collegiality, and for their resistance to all manner of Washington-think.

But, even as Axelrod spoke, a burst of Washington-style drama was making a mockery of these virtues. Late the previous night, the blogger Josh Marshall had gotten word that Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel would sign on as Obama's White House chief of staff--a leak that likely emanated from Emanuel's office. But, when msnbc confirmed the news Wednesday afternoon, Emanuel aides scrambled to deny it. By the following morning, it was more like "yes and no," as Emanuel publicly weighed the pluses and minuses of a White House move. On the one hand, he told reporters, there was the possibility of being "chief of staff to a historic presidency at a historic time." On the other, he'd be walking away from a chance of "rising into leadership" in the House. Mercifully, a final leak arrived soon after: Emanuel would take the job.

Emanuel's hiring seemed to hint at a newfound taste for big, unruly personalities on the part of the drama-averse president-elect. In addition to being less discreet than the typical Obama staffer, Emanuel is known as one of the most volatile and profane people ever to don a congressional lapel pin. (Obama once joked that Emanuel became "practically mute" when he lost half his middle finger in a meat-slicing accident.)

And yet, as Obama personnel decisions go, Emanuel wasn't the first head- scratcher. In making his vice-presidential selection, Obama passed over the famously circumspect Evan Bayh for the famously undisciplined Joe Biden. Insiders expect Obama's roster of big personalities to keep growing. Larry Summers, the impolitic former president of Harvard, is by all accounts a top contender for Treasury secretary. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson, late of the view that homosexuality is a "choice," is a leading candidate for secretary of state. Is Obama's militantly disciplined campaign becoming your standard messy presidency?

 

[rayboyusmc]

Let's wait and see how his choices work out. At least it doesnt' seem he is only hiring people dumber than him or personal buddies.

To be successful, he will have to be a centrist/moderate. He can get more done this way than going way to the left and still push forward a left leaning agenda.

I personally think he is a hell of a lot smarter than people are giving him credit for in how he sets up his close circle of advisors. Smart leaders pick smarter follower.

 

[strollingbones]

arent you suppose to post a link to the whole article?????

 

[matty]

Let's wait and see how his choices work out. At least it doesnt' seem he is only hiring people dumber than him or personal buddies.

To be successful, he will have to be a centrist/moderate. He can get more done this way than going way to the left and still push forward a left leaning agenda.

I personally think he is a hell of a lot smarter than people are giving him credit for in how he sets up his close circle of advisors. Smart leaders pick smarter follower.

...politically that you haven't caught the same Obama-adulation I have been for mos now. Everyone knows he's a Harvard man, don'tchyou?

You're jumping prematurely youself to save him from imagined hate and all over this board.

I hate to see people hate hate so much, esp. when it's largely phantom.

Didjyou take a split second to enjoy his win (since you're so invested in him) before you set out on your mission here?

 

[BlackAsCoal]

I'm not really a fan of The New Republic, but this one is interesting.

The two biggest give-aways about Obama is Emmanuel and Summers.

I've been bashing African-Americans with Summers since Friday and I'll be on a black talk show in the morning to wake a few more up to reality.

 

[rayboyusmc]

Didjyou take a split second to enjoy his win (since you're so invested in him) before you set out on your mission here?

I would have to say from your comment that you are so univested in him that your post is an anti mission.

Up yours, friend.