Here's an excerpt from a lengthy Washington Post article explaining why Rahm Emanuel is the cat's pajamas and why Obama needs to listen to him more
Rahm Emanuel is officially a Washington caricature. He's the town's resident leviathan, a bullying, bruising White House chief of staff who is a prime target for the failings of the Obama administration.
But a contrarian narrative is emerging: Emanuel is a force of political reason within the White House and could have helped the administration avoid its current bind if the president had heeded his advice on some of the most sensitive subjects of the year: health-care reform, jobs and trying alleged terrorists in civilian courts.
It is a view propounded by lawmakers and early supporters of President Obama who are frustrated because they think the administration has gone for the perfect at the expense of the plausible. They believe Emanuel, the town's leading purveyor of four-letter words, a former Israeli army volunteer and a product of a famously argumentative family, was not aggressive enough in trying to persuade a singularly self-assured president and a coterie of true-believer advisers that "change you can believe in" is best pursued through accomplishments you can pass.
Rahm is a tremendous hatchet man and we can say that Obama could stand to leave the "let's hug it out stuff" for Sasha and Malia, but geez…by the end of this article you feel like Obama should toss him the keys to Air Force One and tell him to gas 'er up before taking her for a spin.
