Rahm Emmanuel vs. Howard Dean in Round II
Cenk Ugyur from The Young Turks nailed it today on the Huffington Post, and articulated clearly and concisely the battle that is raging for the philosophical heart of the Democratic party. Back before the 2008 elections, Howard Dean, then chair of the DNC argued for a “50 state strategy.” He felt that Democrats needed to put resources and money and energy into every state, not just those that were labeled “strategic.” You know. Places like Alaska.
Before the nomination of Sarah Palin, the Obama campaign had a full staff in Alaska, and was polling in the range of three points up or three points down, compared to John McCain. Then the VP nomination happened, and the rest went down in Alaska history. But for all those states that didn’t have the VP nominee, the wisdom of the 50-state strategy became very apparent. Democrats cleaned up in places that nobody thought was possible.
Rahm Emmanual, then chair of the DCCC had in the mean time, argued for “realism.” He wanted a more targeted conservative approach, spending resources only in areas where there was a “realistic” chance for success. He went down to Dean’s devastating left hook in the first round.
Now, we’re in the second round. This time it’s the health care debate. Rahm Emanuel has been pushing for a weaker version of reform from the beginning. In his defense, he believes he is focusing on what is doable (nearly the same thing he said during the previous House elections). Emanuel has argued for a trigger from the beginning of the debate and seems to think that a public option is not realistic in this political environment.
Howard Dean has instead argued for a stronger version of health care reform. He believes the country is persuadable (the same position he had in the House elections) and is largely on the side of bolder reform already. He believes the Democratic politicians need to have the courage of their convictions and they can make a real difference.
Once again, Howard Dean is right and Rahm Emanuel is wrong. The voters didn’t vote for a little bit of change. They gave the Democrats the White House and overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate. They voted for real change. The kind of change that Dean always pushes for (and often accomplishes) and the kind of change that Emanuel doesn’t ever find “realistic.”
Emanuel needs to change his definition of realistic. We didn’t elect Obama to fiddle around the edges. We elected him to change the current reality of Washington. We didn’t elect him to figure out the best way to appease the lobbyists; we elected him to figure out the best way to beat them. What Rahm Emanuel doesn’t seem to get is that real change is realistic. You have all this political power. It’s time to use it. If not now, when?
Good question.
I read that article and Uygur articulated it so well. We want change and we want it now! That is what we voted for. Keep pushing Dean…we progressives are behind you cheering all the way!!!
“The voters didn’t vote for a little bit of change. They gave the Democrats the White House and overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate. They voted for real change.”
Amen. Amen. Amen. I have spent hours today calling Senators and Representatives reminding them that they work for us, the people, and it is time to get started. I am just totally disgusted with the lot of them.
You are right we want change and we want BIG change.
Everything on the polls show people wanting the public option both dems and repugs,but yet MSN still keeps implying people are all against it when that is far from the truth.Some Of these congressional people are voting for them selves not for the people they are supposed to represent.JMO
Goalie~
I think that “we” need to turn our cheering into action ~ because “we” have essentially become demobilized since Nov. 4th…. and the noisy minority appears to be callin’ the shots (no pun intended). The President will need the same levels of community organizing to advance the cause for a more healthy nation (and not just as it relates to health care).
This is kind of on Topic : Anyone watch Good Morning America this morning?If not you must watch this, I promise it will get your blood boiling. Dr. Tim Johnson uncovers Health Care Perks for Congressmen right there in the Capitol. Office Of The Attending Physician ,All primary care etc for a low price of 503.00 a year.Diane Sawyer never knew it was there.
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8709410
Bottom line, Rahm has to go, and our president has to listen to the people who hired him, or there will be no second term, period.
Five minutes after Obama was sworn in a friend said to me:
“I sure hope he takes advantage of the political opportunity that he has. It’s not often that the stars are aligned for progressive change, and Obama had better not squander this moment.”
His appointment of Rahm Emmanuel and Timothy Geithner were early indications that those concerns were well-founded.
I am just listening and learning about this….I don’t know enough to contribute.
The more I hear Howard Dean, the most I like and respect him. I hope that President Obama is listening as well.
Rahm is the main reason I no longer take any phone calls nor donate any money to the DCCC. I donate directly to the candidate of MY choice, not some industry bought off shill.
The issue is healthcare and ins reform. Listen to the doctor.
Emanuel is responsible for having the “Blue Dog” democrats elected too.
We all see how well THAT’S working out………………..
Ah, it’s helpful to know the origin of the Dean-Rahm dispute. I’m glad Howard Dean is working so hard for the public insurance option and wonder if the White House appreciates or resents his efforts.
Emmanuel seems to have the ear of the President and he is not “whispering sweet nothin’s” into that ear! I want the change I voted for when I chose Obama and I think he would do well to listen to Dr. Dean, another person I admire.
It is not wise to surround yourself with only great friends. You also need other voices to provide input to discussions.
I, too really like Dr. Dean.
That being said…we have a non-partisian mayoral campaign going on in Albuquerque at the moment and robo calls have been coming from Dr. Dean to support one of the candidates (who is a democrat) in our fair city. A candidate that worked hard to remove “term limits” and if re-elected will serve a fourth term. I have never liked this man (candidate) and personal dealings with him have left a very bad taste in my mouth. I don’t trust him and believe he is in the pocket of big development as evidenced by his past actions.
I do wish Dr. Dean would not have made these obviously partisan calls. I also hope his endorsment of this candidate backfires. He has already gotten ripped in the media for it here.
Obama would be wise to move Rahm out, the sooner the better.
I stand with, Dean. Rahm can go ballet.
A public option is not realistic in this political environment?
The current “political” environment is that we won the elections, we control both houses of congress, and we have a majority of public support. The “Party of no” is imploding, and has very little public support.
If it weren’t for Dean, Emanuel might not even be in a position to be mulling over the extent to which he should pull down his pants.
Bill Maher is right-we have to stop being so cowardly!
I am glad that someone finally said this loud and clear.
@ Claw
‘I stand with, Dean. Rahm can go ballet.”
I ditto that! I admire and respect Dr. Dean.
Sorry to ruin your history, but the fall campaign was not a 50 state strategy. Obama pulled out resources from alaska and other states shortly after palin was nominated and they saw there was no chance. I like the idea of the public option too, but sometimes you get what you get.
My point was that it was close before she was tapped. The “local girl makes good” factor made it impossible for Obama to take the state. Without that, there would have been a shot. Dean’s 50-state strategy put Dems in districts all over. The Palin effect was not beatable in Alaska. AKM
Oh, boy, this is a first.
After a year of reading and lurking, I think this is the first time I disagree with AKM and the posters so far. This feels weird!
I don’t disagree that Dean is saying important things and playing an important role, and I don’t disagree that I think Rahm is more conservative about what can be accomplished here than may be possible.
But I am mystified by the “Slam the Rahm” momentum that has emerged. He’s got a very specific job to do, one that is very different from Dean’s. He’s supposed to be the chicken-little, let’s play it safe guy — that’s what a Chief of Staff is supposed to be doing, along with bringing a whole range of opinions to the President’s awareness.
Yes, Dean was right about the 50 state strategy. However, not a single incumbent Democrat lost when Rahm headed the DCCC. To suggest that Dean has a clue and Rahm doesn’t on the basis of one strategy seems pretty silly to me.
Okay, shutting up now. But here’s a great article that gives a little more insight into who Rahm Emanuel is and how he thinks — and while he may not land exactly where I do all the time, I don’t think this makes him Moriarty!
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_lizza?currentPage=all
I don’t disagree with him on everything. But I do on his approach to health care reform. AKM
OT, sort of:
Friedman uses history to point of the dangers of the radical right.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html?_r=1
The problem I see with both Emmanuel and Dean is that the health insurance industry has lined the pockets of both sides with dollars- true, three times as much for those who oppose a public option- in an effort to derail any reform. Rick Sanchez on CNN shared the numbers today- disgusting. And many Republicans are gleefully sabotaging any and all efforts to derail Obama.
Mudpuppy Wannabe – I appreciate hearing a different view.
I wonder if we’re seeing Obama’s Akido-style at play in his approach to the healthcare debate and we haven’t seen all his moves yet.
Rahm is just cynical enough to screw health care reform over. It’s been well documented over at Firedoglake.
curiouser,
I felt that way a few months ago. Today, not so much.
I just got an email from Vern Buchanan congressman here in Florida stated they are trying to cover the immigrants in the health care reform do we approve? I told him “When are you going to stop lying to the people? When are you going to stop the scare tactics, they don’t work anymore? The president won, your side lost, work with him!!!!!”
Obama needs to take a stand. Public option is an essential part of health care reform. He needs to take Rahm out behind the woodshed for saying the public option might not make it.
I voted for big change, not small change. I donated. I am not unreasonable in my expectations, because I really voted for single payer and I know it is too soon for that (too bad because it would do more for our economy, business growth, competitiveness, and our national debt).
There are no Aikido moves here. Obama started this process by standing back and playing it safe and trying not to use too much political capital, and it backfired. I am waiting to see if he learned his lesson from that. So far, I think he still is treating it like a chess game. I want him to treat this like a mission. I want to see passion, not chess moves.
Time for Obama to step up and stand with Dean. We need real reform not more profits for the insurance companies.
CO almost native Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 2:33 PM
Wow…excellent article by Friedman, CO, thanks for sharing.
Some powerful comments as well / especially #14 @ 6:33 am
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/opinion/30friedman.html
rob in ca,
Well said, well said indeed.
Single payer should have been brought to the table from the get go, and was not which speaks volumes.
Barack Obama has not been in office one year, and both sides are already working to make him a one-term president! The republicans don’t have to do a thing! I’m sick of people whining about “change.” Barack Obama is not a dictator! The democrats may have control of the house and the senate, but the truth is not all of the democrats are progressives! The blue-dog “democrats” are not real democrats! They are like the republicans, and only looking out for themselves, and they just want to ruin Barack Obama’s presidency! Barack Obama is not a sellout, but an inexperienced, spineless,
wimp! It doesn’t even matter that Barack Obama is working his butt off, or that he is even trying to get healthcare reform done in his first year as president! Even George W. Bush got two-terms! I wish Barack Obama had never been elected! Because he just can’t win!
You have Rahm to thank for the blue dogs. The presidents right hand man.
Rahm must be getting it from all sides though. His brother, Ezekiel Emanuel, M.D. wrote an excellent book on SINGLE PAYER health care reform called “Health Care, Guaranteed, a simple, secure solution for America”. I really thought that Rahm would be the one pushing the public option, at the very least.
If we did away with the VA health, Medicare and Medicaid, and Indian Health Service, that’s a sh*t load of bureaucracy and savings right there! Everyone gets the same card, same benefits.
Too simple, too democratic. No chance.
I am one of those on fixed incomes. I voted, I donated, and I donated some more, and I donated again, I wrote letter after letter, and email after email, I signed petitions, and I really thought we had a chance for change and I was elated when Obama won. I no longer donate what little I have left. I barely hope any more. It seems more and more like business as usual. I am sorely disappointed.
Mudflats keeps me relatively sane, but I am even more disillusioned with the “power of the people” than I used to be. The majority of those I talk to want single payer health insurance, they would be satisfied with a public option — few are listening. And the insurance industry is winning.
Giving up so much to be bi-partisan when one political party is totally trying to control the outcome without bending, while the other party is in power but unwilling to use it’s power, is a crock of you-know-what.
So much for The Audacity of Hope! Forgive me — after all the wrangling, and trying to send a message to those who aren’t listening and could care less because they’ve been bought and paid for, I’ve lost most of my hope.
The American Dream is becoming a nightmare and we are steadily becoming a nation of a few Haves with a great majority of Have-Nots, most of whom are now the working poor or those who have lost their jobs.
Get to the Chase Rahm is a RepoCon plane and simple. He’s a mole and not even a subtle one.
Why Obama has his I just don’t get, and Rahm is running of Obama’s voters and trading them in for Big Business support.
He’sselling Obama’s political soul and Obama apparently is oblivious or wants it.
I strongly disagree with all that have given up on President Obama!! I still believe that he will bring about the changes he promised!! I definitely still have the audacity to hope and believe that he will stumble along the way, but for the most part, he will turn the country around. I refuse to join the Repugs thinking! Go President Obama! Yes We Can!!!!
Somebody needs to wake Obama up to the fact that Rahm and the other nay sayer Dems are undoing the very messages that Obama is speaking to – unless Obama is lying to the public.
There is a Texas Aggie joke (takes to long to explain see the internets) about the Aggie farmer who was so dumb he put his tractor in reverse and unplowed a quarter acre.
That’s what Rahm is doing to Obama and to the members of Congress who are trying to address the Dims election promises. He is undoing what they are working hard to do.
He is doing irreparable harm to his boss and his party and empowering the party that was resoundingly voted out of the WH, that is savaging his boss, his President, and threatening to murder him.
I think it is time to start calling him Emanual Chaney, he doesn’t support anything that he personally doesn’t control. And by undercutting Obama, he is controlling Obama.
I seem to be into Shakespears tonight. Does Rahm remind anybody else of Iago?
Well, she is NOT one of the most requested speakers — in any category they list. At least not yet.
http://www.washingtonspeakers.com/speakers/requested.cfm
Interesting to see that Katie Couric is one of their most requested as is Arianna Huffington and many other people of accomplishment. Poor Sarah!
This is a great synopsis of Rahm Emanual’s influence. I have not been as aware of this as I should be. Your last paragraph says it so well and the last sentence “if not now, when?” goes right to the heart of this issue. Great post.
19 Big Pete
If it weren’t for Dean, Emanuel might not even be in a position to be mulling over the extent to which he should pull down his pants.
Rham should be supporting the same issues that Obama was elected by. In effect Rahm was elected by proxy and he should repay the people who put hm in his current position by supporting the issues that they were promised.
Rahm is facilitating the Republicans, for Pete sakes, and at the same time as undermining Obama’s support. He’s pulling a double whammy against Obama’s pormises.
If he ca’t row the same direction as the rest of us galley slaves, he should at least stop rowing against us.
Oh yea of little faith.Do you not think the republicans are loving this division that we all are showing? I went with out to give and the last time was yesterday because the voting is not done yet. I have e-mailed all the dems that voted against it in the senate, including Collins and Snowe because I had read that the majority in Maine wanted the public option..Since I can’t get out and about the only thing I can do is donate and e-mail.If everyone is so gung ho for this public option why isn’t more being done on a national level like the GOP did with their march on Washington,Sure they lied about the numbers but why couldn’t those who want the public option do the same .I don’t necessarily agree with everything both President Obama or Rham does but I do like both men Rham does not let anyone walk all over him.Remember what Kennedy said about Nixon offering him a health care plan and how he wished he had accepted it because we would be much farther along now if he had.
Califpat @#37
I strongly disagree with all that have given up on President Obama!! I still believe that he will bring about the changes he promised!! I definitely still have the audacity to hope and believe that he will stumble along the way, but for the most part, he will turn the country around. I refuse to join the Repugs thinking! Go President Obama! Yes We Can!!!!
===========
Some may call us idealists, but I am right there with you! I believe it because, left to his own idealism, without such massive obstructionism, PO would be moving much faster. As it is, with so much on his daily plate, it is amazing to me that he (or anyone) would not follow ms.quittypantz’ bad example… but he will continue to do the best job he can, and we are IMO so fortunate to have a smart and thoughtful person at the helm.
Yeah, I was mighty cranky when I heard that Rahm was going to be Obama’s chief of staff. Rahm’s problem is he thinks the political game is all. He fails to understand that it is a tool for running the country. You can use politics to serve the people or serve yourself, but rarely do those two things coincide.
Let’s have more Howard Dean and a LOT less Rahm Emmanuel.
On the question of being cranky generally with the way the president is delivering or not delivering, I recommend this post up at WTF Is It Now?1?
http://maruthecrankpot.blogspot.com/2009/09/die-fast-said-rethug-to-sick-old-woman.html
There were many times during the campaign that I felt just as discouraged as I do now. More than once, I thought there was no way we could win. But we did win. We can’t give up on real health care reform yet.
Keep on making calls, writing emails, and let people know what we want. The phones for the key senators on the finance committee have been busy for the last two days. The phones for all the democrats (& reasonable republicans) in congress need to be flooded with calls (emails/faxes) for the next two months.
It’s not over yet. We have to be just as motivated as the teabaggers. We have to be FIRED UP.
We will get this done. Today as I was going to work, I wanted to go south on a one-way northbound street and it hit me: The driver (Pres. Obama, or any leader) cannot, at will, change the direction in which the street (entrenched polity) is headed. I continued on my way, having to travel an extra block or two, and arrived at my destination. The journey took a little more time and I arrived at the appointed time.
We can only travel on the road we have now. The building of new roads and changing the designation on the road we are traveling takes a lot of concerted effort. Change happens.
We must continue to support the progressive change that appears to be moving so agonizingly slow right now.
Thanks for not throwing rotten tomatoes at me!
And I didn’t mean to suggest AKM, that you were vilifying Rahm. Forgive me if what I wrote came off that way! I came and saw this post after I’d been online at Huffpo where people were accusing him of being everything from unpatriotic to the next Karl Rove and did a little gack.
Califpat and mwThatOne.. I’m so with you! The opera ain’t over yet. And I have not lost faith, either!
And Curiouser, I do think this is part of the process — I think the White House has been playing this close and strategically. I keep thinking about those multiple moments during the campaign when I thought Obama had blown it because he’d held back and let things flow longer than I would have and I knew it was over and time and time again his instincts were far better than mine. Huh. Guess he’s smarter than me. (That’s such a newly delicious thought about a president!)
I find myself wondering about the disappointment that people are articulating with Obama or his staff — by my count, he’s not lost any real fight yet. Some things aren’t necessarily happening magic wand fast, but things are coming.
So, I think it’s strategy for the most part. I think Rahm Emanuel plays the game differently than I would, but he has had enormous tactical successes in his career and I believe that’s more important in a Chief of Staff than ideology — his job is to get things done. (And actually reading quotes of Rahm’s rather than the punditry around them, he’s not said anything that other White House people haven’t said — I think they are being truthful when they say reform is the goal and they’re willing to look at various options, and I think they’re also testing ideas when they speak.)
Oh, and Dowl — I loved your post. Beautiful.