A few decades ago, when I was the Chicago bureau chief for a New York newspaper, a young man appeared at my office one day to talk Windy City politics.
He was intelligent, well-spoken, and knew we shared a common university. He wanted me to know he was well connected in the powerful Democrat machine whose years were waning there.
Now, you should know in the days of that long-lived, Democrat dynasty that had worked so well, political operatives did not ever show up to trade political tips and gossip with an out-of-town newsman for a free lunch.
He was not the first ambitious person seeking to get his name in a major newspaper. He was, however, engaging in a refreshingly direct way.
Plotting politicians are usually more guarded. He was candid and blunt about colleagues and politics in a way that didn’t become widely employed until Donald J. Trump made it an everyday sign of his authenticity.
The man's information was interesting, though not terribly relevant to my work. We lunched several times. But he stopped coming around when I did not write about him.
Then, one day sometime later, out of nowhere, this man appears in the news as the new national finance chair for the little-known governor of Arkansas, who wanted to succeed George H.W. Bush as president of the United States.
The man’s name is Rahm Emanuel.
He went on to help guide William Jefferson Clinton through that campaign, the Gennifer Flowers mess, and others.
He became a senior White House adviser, then a millionaire investment banker, a three-term House member, the strategic architect of Democrats’ 2006 House takeover, chief of staff to President Barack Obama, two-term mayor of Chicago, and U.S. ambassador to Japan. Not many have such a resume.
Now, the 65-year-old Emanuel is stopping by to talk politics with select D.C. media types, showing up as a speaker virtually anywhere that invites him, and appearing consistently on TV with the likes of Bill Maher.
It’s almost as if Rahm Emanuel is running for something. Of course, that’s ridiculous and unseemly this far out from 2028.
Truth is, though, you don’t just up and run for president. It takes years of spadework, helping others in midterms, polishing marketable positions, publicizing yourself, cultivating rich donors. The latter is much easier if your brother is Ari Emanuel, Hollywood A-list agent.
If you ask Emanuel now about running for office again, as he hopes you will, his response is: “I’m not done with public service, and I’m hoping public service is not done with me.”
Emanuel is famous for several things – being a keen political strategist, telling it straight in a way that serves his purpose, having a foul mouth, and never losing an election he was in. Also for his middle finger. He lost half of it slicing meat at Arby’s long before we met.
Emanuel is also famous for this classic Swamp quote: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
He later elaborated:
What I said was, never allow a good crisis to go to waste when it's an opportunity to do things that you had never considered, or that you didn't think were possible.
Oh, look! Not coincidentally, it just so happens that Emanuel’s Democrat Party is in a very serious — I mean, good — crisis right now. And a lot of people think it's impossible to fix in time. Trump’s impressive November victory, a GOP takeover of Congress, and the ongoing blizzard of Trump orders and actions have left the opposition party in stunned disarray.
Polls show the Democrats' overall favorability has fallen to an historic low.
Democrats are severely divided over how to confront Donald Trump. Publicly, the party, for now, is sticking by its tainted stands for DEI, defending federal government bureaucrats, and the emerging spending scandals from the previous administration.
The latest strategy for this feckless bunch is to hold up silly signs when the president speaks. Ben Domenech observed in The Transom:
(Democrats) need to get back to being the party of the Clintonian 1990s, or their time in the wilderness could be even longer than the next four years. This means ignoring the instincts of their woke flank even if it subjects them to criticism and fury from donors and Hollywood.
If they don’t get back to being okay with guns, cops, soldiers, the Bible, and the flag, they’re going to be stuck in crazytown for a long time to come.
Things have gotten so bad for them that Joe Biden, the actual reason Democrats are in so much trouble right now, has offered to come back and “help.”
Conservatives can only hope.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are attacking each other, calling for their leadership’s resignation. They were forced, by smart united GOP tactics for a change, to pass an interim budget favored by Trump or take the stinging blame for a federal government shutdown.
Instead of proclaiming lofty goals for the country, Democrats’ new national chair feels compelled to say things like: “We’re not dead as a party.”
And along comes the familiar face of a savvy someone who sees opportunity in crisis. Others will, of course, offer their candidacy.
Not, you understand, that anyone is running yet to be the Democrat nominee in 2028 against a TBD Trump successor. No one, not even the Salad Mistress, is dumb enough to set themselves up as a target for that many long years.
But Emanuel is offering some early practical positioning ideas that warrant close attention from any over-confident Republicans:
I am done with the discussion of locker rooms. I am done with the discussion of bathrooms. And we better start having a conversation about the classroom.
Then, in typical language, Emanuel told Maher’s national audience:
In seventh grade, if I had known I could’ve said the word ‘they’ and gotten in the girls’ bathroom, I would’ve done it. We literally are a superpower. We’re facing off against China with 1.4 billion people and two-thirds of our children can’t read at eighth grade level.
In a nutshell at a time of deep Democrat despair, that shows Emanuel’s skill at identifying, condensing, and articulating an issue that resonates with the public.
Progressives will be furious over such apostasy. But then they’re losers now, aren't they? Does anyone think their party control will endure three more years in the lifeless Desert of Minority?
Emanuel pulled off big wins with his directness in 2006 when his House strategies and handpicked candidates abruptly ended 12 years of GOP House rule started by Newt Gingrich in the Republican Revolution of 1994.
In 2006, with Emanuel's guiding strategy, Democrats defeated 22 Republican incumbents and captured eight open GOP seats. That set up Nancy Pelosi as Speaker ready to enact — without reading, you'll remember — Barack Obama’s legislative agenda, including ObamaCare and an ineffective $800 million stimulus package. VP Joe Biden was assigned to enact that jobs program but failed there, too.
Not surprisingly, Emanuel’s re-emergence is perfect timing for him to help organize a Democrat offensive to once again end the GOP’s minute House control in next year’s midterms and cripple the last two years of Trump’s agenda.
Count on Emanuel’s political pragmatism, experience, and clear, powerful presence fundraising and campaigning across the country.
I'm betting he would also accumulate political debts and loyalties that could produce useful endorsements later in primary contests for the party’s 2028 presidential nomination.
Emanuel would be short for a president. The average height for all 47 presidents is 5-11. Trump is 6-3. JD Vance is 6-2. Emanuel is 5-7.
But his lengthy, varied resume would top that of any two-bit governor with slick hair or one with an XXXL suitcoat.
He's been a two-term, big-city leader (the first Jewish mayor in Chicago history), three-term House member, prolific fundraiser at all levels, diplomat to a top Asian ally, skilled DC media player/strategist, and senior adviser inside two successful White House presidencies, each lasting two terms.
Progressives have controlled the party since installing a demented Joe Biden they maintained was sharp as a tack, which means progressive tacks couldn't hold up a single sheet of paper with the help of SuperGlue.
Their other claims to fame are nine-percent inflation and many of the programs currently being disassembled by the Orange Man and even abandoned by a corporate America sensing the changing cultural winds.
Think about it: That devoted DEI crowd proved incapable of electing the first woman president running against an elderly Republican retread they had already defeated once.
With that record, there’s no guarantee that progressive power will even survive in the party it's driven into the ditch.
How about trying an experienced, carefully packaged, wily, centrist Democrat from the Heartland like Rahm Emanuel? He helped terminate 12 years of GOP White House rule in 1992 with the same centrist strategy. And then erased the long-running Republican House in 2006.
Be careful. Emanuel could become Republicans’ worst nightmare for a Trump legacy, bringing his Democrat Party back to power just four years after a humiliating defeat — as Richard Nixon did in 1968 following the GOP’s Goldwater disaster just four years before.
See, Rahm? I finally did write about you. Just needed the right reason.
