Sunday, August 16, 2009

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Wields Power Freely, but Faces Risks - NYTimes.com

Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s Chief of Staff, Wields Power Freely, but Faces Risks - NYTimes.com: "Seven months after moving into his office in the West Wing, Mr. Emanuel is emerging as perhaps the most influential White House chief of staff in a generation. But with his prominence in almost everything important going on in Washington comes a high degree of risk."
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Replace Emanuel with Cheney and chief of staff with Vice President and you could clone these stories from 2002. Is it that we keep electing people who are all image and no substance, who need a Svengali to do anything, or is it that the press creates these stories as a reflection of their own skepticism?

2 comments:

Don Nordeen said...

Apparently, skilled speech writers and the teleprompters are persuasive for many voters.

Beth said...

I wonder how far back these "Svengali" stories go? i.e., was Coolidge's VP accused of being the real power behind the throne? How about further back, before Pres and VP were on the same ticket together? It would be interesting if this is turned out to be one of those enduring strands of American politics.