Hur ska Obama klara av att balansera mellan verklighetens krav och den demokratiska kongressens önskelista? Ett svar stavas Rahm Emanuel, skriver New York Times-kolumnisten Dan Schnur. In English.
Barack Obama was elected president after promising to cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans and criticizing his opponent for what he called a tax on health care. Congressional Democrats, many of whom have not promised to cut taxes, spent Obama's first day as president-elect asserting their goal of pursing an "aggressive agenda."
News reports chronicled their interest in a hefty economic stimulus package, expanded health care coverage, ending the Iraq war and various other issues relating to energy and trade policy, judicial appointments and stem cell research. None quoted a Democratic member of Congress urging the next president to cut taxes, which suggests that their brand of aggression might differ slightly from his.
Obama's own instincts may suggest a more cautious and centrist approach to governing, so the key will be for him to avoid the leftward pull of the enlarged, empowered and impatient Democratic majorities on Capitol Hill. The president-elect is receiving advice from Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, both Bill Clinton-era economic stewards, telling him to be wary of overly ambitious spending plans, which flies in the face of the hyper-Keynesian approach promoted by most members of the Congressional leadership.
He also understands that the anti-Bush sentiments that drove hordes of moderate voters to support his candidacy will provide him little protection if he moves too far from the political center. Obama is smart enough to know that the last two Democratic presidents were both dragged in that direction by their putative Congressional allies, which is why he is also smart enough to have reached out to one of the few people in Washington with the experience, savvy and toughness to help him avoid those sirens: Rep. Rahm Emanuel (the brother of a fellow Campaign Stops contributor).
Emanuel, who served on the White House staff when President Clinton ran into these types of difficulties during his first two years in office, is the one member of the Democratic Congressional leadership who understands the perils of overreaching. Just as important, he is the type of political brawler capable of pushing back hard at his former colleagues who would try to yank President Obama further toward the left end of the political and policy spectrum.
Just as Obama's selection of Joe Biden as his running mate filled in the gaps in his own resume in the areas of foreign policy and national security, the street fighter in Emanuel effectively complements the more conciliatory impulses of the new president as White House chief of staff.
Some Republicans protest that Emanuel, who masterminded the Democratic takeover of Congress two years ago, is too partisan a figure to effectively serve in an administration dedicated to erasing the differences between Red and Blue America. But "Rahmbo" would not be hired to train his guns at Republicans, rather to gently and regularly poke his fellow Democrats back into line. He has developed personal relationships with several key House GOP members and he will remind them that a White House that looks to cooperate across party lines is infinitely preferable to one that continually reverts to partisan orthodoxy and confrontation.
If the Republicans' most important priority is damaging Obama in order to create a more favorable political landscape for themselves in 2010 and 2012, then they will be disappointed in Emanuel's decision to take the job. If they would like to find a way to work with the new president to address the nation's extraordinary array of policy challenges, then they should be very pleased that he will return to his old stomping grounds.
It's entirely possible that the current economic crisis could force Obama to either reduce or eliminate the tax cut package he proposed in the campaign. But the same dynamic between him and Congressional Democrats will define the new administration's course on his other policy priorities as well. The size and scope of health care expansion, the speed with which American troops are withdrawn from Iraq, and the willingness to push for long-overdue education reforms are only a few of the issues on which his caution and their aggression are bound to collide. Obama is laying down an early marker by appointing a chief of staff who knows how to pick and win these fights.
Rahm Emanuel reportedly once sent a dead fish to a political consultant who had angered him. For President Obama to govern successfully, a daily delivery of similar gifts to the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue might provide welcome reminders to the Democrats who run Congress that their long-simmering wish lists are not the highest priority of either the new president or the nation that elected him.