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A Further Perspective
What Can Rahm Be Thinking?
The ideas Mr. Emanuel expressed in his farewell remarks are really over the top.
Mr. Emanuel praised Mr. Obama as ”the toughest leader any country could ask for in the toughest times any president has faced.” He fought back tears as he thanked his wife and three children, seated in the front row of the East Room for the farewell ceremony.
That’s how the New York Times described Rahm Emanuel’s leave-taking as President Obama’s Chief of Staff. We all say nice things on such occasions. I have no idea whether Rahm Emanuel’s departure was his own idea or whether he suddenly discovered a life-long desire to run for Mayor of Chicago to cover for the fact he was being asked to walk the plank.
Inside-the-Beltway folks care deeply about such things. I don’t. For me, it’s enough to judge the stew that comes out of the kitchen; I don’t care too much if the chefs are making nice with each other behind the kitchen door.
Many commentators have written about narcissism and the self-referential nature of this administration, but the ideas Mr. Emanuel expressed in his farewell remarks are really over the top. Can he really think these are the “toughest times” any president has faced?
When their fellow Illinoisan, Abraham Lincoln, was elected, seven states quickly seceded. Trying to staff his new administration, President-elect Lincoln said he felt like a man trying to rent rooms in the front of his house while the back of it was on fire. Lincoln had to be spirited into Washington, D.C., avoiding a near-certain assassination attempt in Baltimore. At his Inauguration, the Army’s top general, Winfield Scott, had stationed sharpshooters on every rooftop lining the parade route from the Capitol to the White House.
“Old Fuss and Feathers,” they called the huge, gouty war hero, but Gen. Scott made sure Lincoln could take the oath without violence. If anyone tried to disrupt the new President’s taking office, Winfield Scott said, he had cannon prepared and would “manure the Virginia hills with their bodies.” Those were tough times.
President Obama is often compared to Franklin D. Roosevelt, when his worshipful friends in the media are not comparing him to God. President-elect Roosevelt took a drive in an open car in Miami, just weeks before his scheduled March 4th Inauguration in 1933.
Seated beside FDR was Anton Cermak, the Mayor of Chicago. An unemployed carpenter, Giuseppe Zangara, dashed out of the crowd and fired point-blank at Roosevelt. He missed FDR and hit instead Mayor Cermak. The Secret Service ordered the President-elect’s limousine to speed away, leaving the mortally wounded Cermak in the care of medics on the scene. FDR overruled his security detail and demanded the car go back for Cermak.
Soon afterward, he walked to the Inaugural podium with assistance to compensate for his polio-crippled legs. He looked out at the thousands of hopeful, expectant faces and said: “…the only thing we have to fear is fear itself!” Now, those were tough times. Banks all over the country were closed or collapsing. Armed guards had to be stationed on U.S. Mail trucks.
Or, consider young John F. Kennedy. Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev had bullied him at their Vienna Summit meeting, threatening nuclear war over divided Berlin. When in the summer of 1961, Khrushchev tore that city apart with his ugly, brutal Berlin Wall, Kennedy had to tread carefully to avoid World War III. A year later, Khrushchev again tested the inexperienced President Kennedy by placing deadly nuclear missiles 90 miles from our shores in Communist Cuba. Kennedy coolly stared down the Kremlin boss’ deadly gambit. He forced Khrushchev to remove the missiles in the most intense U.S.-Soviet confrontation since World War II.
Everyone likes to think their own times are toughest, that their own trials are greatest. For Rahm Emanuel to praise his boss is not out of line, but he clearly knows little of this country’s powerful past if he thinks President Obama’s ordeals are the toughest.
The fact that we Americans faced the crisis of the Civil War and came through it, overcame the hardships of the Great Depression, and prevailed over an Evil Empire in what JFK called that “long twilight struggle” should give this administration cause for confidence. Knowing our past and appealing to our people’s courage and resilience should be a source of strength for us to face the challenges of today. But, obviously, Rahm Emanuel knows little of these things.
Does his boss know them better? If so, we have yet to hear about it.
About the Author
Ken Blackwell, the former mayor of Cincinnati, Ohio is Vice Chairman of the Republican National Committee’s Platform Committee. He also serves on the boards of the Club For Growth and the National Taxpayers Union.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (41) | Leave a comment
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Siegfried X| 10.7.10 @ 7:19AM
"whether he suddenly discovered a life-long desire to run for Mayor of Chicago to cover for the fact he was being asked to walk the plank."
Actually the whole thing came up months back. Rumors spread that Rahm was going to run for mayor of Chicago. The media was all over it. After a week of stuttering, Rahm said he might like to be Mayor some day, but would never, never run against Mayor Daley.
So when Daley dropped out, Rahm jumped in, as promised.
"Many commentators have written about narcissism and the self-referential nature of this administration..."
Yup. Sickening, but that the way they always play it. All spin, all the time. No bipartisanship and kissing the other party's glass. Fight, fight, fight to pass their party's legislation and win elections.
Of course the Democrats are totally wrong about issues. Socialism and political correctness is destroying the country.
However I sometimes wish that Republicans would use some of the Democrat's TACTICS. Wouldn't it be great to have a Republican party which fought the Democrats as hard as Obama fights us? And wouldn't it be great to have a Republican party which was aggressively conservative as Obama's administration is left-wing?
Alan Brooks| 10.8.10 @ 12:39AM
"Can he really think these are the "toughest times" any president has faced?"
So you admit things are not so bad? that Obama's administration is shaping up to be far more pleasant than Lincoln's? Good, now we know you do not dislike Obama as much as you say you do.
Rev. Jesse Jackson| 10.9.10 @ 12:17AM
Politicians use bullshit to hide the fact that we are all living in a Matrix, and that the Red Dragon will eventually take over.
sam| 10.15.10 @ 5:55AM
what do you mean - red dragon?
TennesseeVolunteer| 10.7.10 @ 7:43AM
Siegried, fear not.
Your champion is called "The Tea Party".
Curly Smith| 10.7.10 @ 7:45AM
"Can he really think these are the "toughest times" any president has faced?"
Yes. They're happening to ObamaRahma and they, the most qualified, the most intelligent, the most able and the most dynamic duo in history are falling short. Hence, they're the toughest times that any leader of any country has ever faced. Most disappointing though, is that they are the ones that they were waiting for. It really wasn't worth the wait...
Beauregard| 10.7.10 @ 8:22AM
I don't like FDR, I didn't like JFK, and as a Southerner, well...
you know what I think of Lincoln.
Purple Lips| 10.7.10 @ 8:58AM
And as Northeners, you know what we think of Jeff Davis and Robert E. Lee. Too bad Sherman didn't sow the soil around Atlanta with salt.
Doctor Right| 10.7.10 @ 10:17AM
WHAT do you have against Robert E. Lee???
Lee was probably the most competent, most honorable and least egotistical General Officer this nation has ever produced.
He was a hero of the Mexican War, where General Winfield Scott proclaimed him to be "the finest Officer I have ever served with," and Scott was his Boss!!!
After the Mexican War, Lee (an engineer by trade) designed many of the Forts that would aid the young American nation as it expanded westward, many of which are still standing today.
Lee was a true Patriot who dearly loved his country. In act, he was so revered by Lincoln that he was offered command of all Union forces up to the beginning of hostilities in the "War of Northern Aggression", but he turned down the job and resigned his Commission because he knew that he could NEVER take up arms against his fellow Virginians. It was the kind of decision that most of us pray we'll never have to make, in any situation, yet Lee handled it honorably.
In my humble opinion, Robert E. Lee ismone of the greatest American heroes of all time. He symbolizes the best that our nation can produce. I wish we had ten more just like him today.
Aquanomics| 10.7.10 @ 10:30AM
Thanks you for this. You left out the Gen. Lee never owned slaves. His allegiance was to VA and his fellow southerners, not (some of) their policies.
Claypoole| 10.7.10 @ 1:17PM
After the South surrendered, Lee said--and I paraphrase; his words were far more eloquent--that now there would be no check on the power of the federal government. He was not only brave, he was visionary.
Now, can we all secede again?
Tex Expatriate| 10.7.10 @ 1:52PM
Jeff Davis and Robert E. Lee were both American Heroes forced to serve their states by an un-American and unconstitutional strong central national government that warred against and destroyed the south to cement that strong central government. If you knew anything about history---rather than the lies you have been taught in government schools---you would know this.
Few people agree with me, but I predict we will see the same kind of nullification followed by secession again. And I'll be glad for it. I'm a patriotic American, not a patriotic United Statesian.
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 4:26PM
Nullification is already in play. MO passed an Obamacare opt out and I believe similar items are on the ballot in several states including Arizona of immigration bill fame. How all this will play out is anybody's guess. Still, the great and sad irony of American history is that the States were right in the civil war and the federal government wrong and both (sad irony) for the wrong reasons.
Albert| 10.7.10 @ 4:56PM
As a non-northerner and a non-southerner, I have no native sympathies to either. But look at the law and the results. Lincoln prosecuted a war against the southern states simply because he did not want to be the man to preside over secession. 600,000 people died and countless others were maimed and their lives ruined because of that war. Secession is not illegal and the war prosecuted by Lincoln was unconstitutional, as were many other acts by Lincoln. Probably the greatest irony in American politics is the Gettysburg Address, wherein Lincoln spoke of government "of the People, by the People, and for the People" while it was these very principles of government that were effectively destroyed by Lincoln's war.
I have little admiration for Generals Lee, Grant,or Sherman, at least as Generals. Their tactics were greatly outmoded for the times and they almost universally neglected to utilize the best available technology. Thousands died in set-piece battles in what were effectively suicide formations. The tactics used at the end of the war were virtually the same as at the beginning. None of these men learned anything from their mistakes.
BLUE GUM| 10.11.10 @ 12:48AM
Purple Lips, you aint a Yankee, you is contraband!
Sam Vaughn| 10.7.10 @ 9:43AM
Isn't it odd that now the South, so maligned by the press over the years, has the opporunity to show the rest of the country that conservatism works. Having two sides to my family I find the difference between the public, Hollywoodified, MSM'd version of the South and what I know for fact to be far off course. To the Northeast side of my family I am continually trying to correct their ignorance of the South. The reality is that Atlanta is a more diversified, culturally inclusive less bigoted place than Boston. Tell that to Cambridge. Nevertheless, I think the next great politician to come from the South will not be a Clinton or a Carter,,,,, fingers crossed..... ;)
bull-gator| 10.7.10 @ 10:34AM
and his name is Jim DeMint. A southern gentlemen if there ever was one.
Maddox| 10.7.10 @ 12:55PM
I second that thought! ...2012
Kishego| 10.7.10 @ 2:55PM
Jim DeMint is awesome, we need more like him. I hope he can stay true to his principals. I really liked Mark Sanford as well. Woe that he turned out to be such a lout.
Tex Expatriate| 10.7.10 @ 1:57PM
Sam, you are so right! And it has always been so, I believe largely because of the lies and propaganda served up during the War of Northern Aggression. Next time you get in an argument with your northern bigoted in-laws (?), point out that Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation only applied to the states that had seceded---not to the northern states which held slaves. And add that Lincoln had neither right nor law to do so.
Doctor Right| 10.7.10 @ 3:34PM
What you say is 100% true, but northern elitists will NEVER admit.
I've lived in the Southeast, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast, and my wife is a Texan. Race-relations in "the South" are FAR better than they are in the Northeast. The people get along better, and social interactions are much-more laid back.
I once read a Sociologist explain that this is so because the South was forced to endure a sort-of "shock-therapy" after 1964, and have made the appropriate adjustments, where as the Northeast has NEVER had to undergo this kind of experience.
And the racism of the Northeastern parts of the USA is different, too. It's pervasive, but subtle. It's the Liberal form of racism, the kind that quietly assumes that blacks and minorities are inherently dumb, and incapable of managing their own lives. A black friend once told me "I'll take the in-your-face bigotry of a southern redneck any day over the hypocrisy I find all the time up here...At least with a redneck, I know where he stands."
Elliott Vinson Jr.| 10.7.10 @ 11:40PM
After reading your comment I gathered you did not like anyone but after giving it a second thought I have decided that you like the Obama Administration. He has not accomplished anything for the people he is supposed to lead, that being all of American citizens. It is people like you that need to wake up and smell the roses. The two presidents you didn't like did one heck of a lot more than this current one ever thought about doing for the country. Go back and read your history books.
Louis Jenkins| 10.7.10 @ 8:35AM
Beauregard, we live with the history these men have left us with. Many times we ask ourselves what if? But it is all in the past. Let us look toward the 'morrow, because as the article and common sense tell us, it was bad then, sure, but it could get worse and will if we Americans do not act. The next election will be a crux election for this country, even more important than the last one if we can believe that. Be of good cheer people, for we are all that we have.
CareerTrooper| 10.7.10 @ 9:48AM
Yes the President is facing tough times. What Rham omitted from his statment was the final words: so badly. ..the thoughest times any president has faced, so badly.
American servicemen are dying almost daily in Afganistan, in large part because this president has refused them the men and support they so urgently need to persecute the enemy effectively. As CIC of the Armed Forces he needs to channel JFK and "cooly" stare down the Pakistanis so our warriors can get the resupply convoy's they need, before they are overrun!
Tex Expatriate| 10.7.10 @ 1:59PM
This so-called President has not faced but has created the tough times.
Dan Hirsch| 10.7.10 @ 9:49AM
Maybe what Rahm was really thinking was these were the toughest times ever faced by a President in relative terms.
Lincoln was a strong, tough, sturdy leader - he faced down the destruction of our country.
Kennedy, with his WWII Pacific theater experience, faced down some fierce Soviet challenges.
Carter with his USN nuculah engineer background faced down that rabbit from his canoe - he didn't do so well with the Soviets in Afghanistan or the 'students' of Tehran.
Obama with his hard knocks Ivy-league education and community organizing battles (Do you remember anything about them? I never heard about anything but some lectures on how to squeeze mortgages from those ferocious bankers...) has been forced to bow on three continents and apologize on six (He hasn't been to Antarctica, yet.) has faced some really, really tough challenges. ('Joe, how many letters in "jobs?" Is it three or four?')
I still love Him Clinton whining about how unfair it was that George W. "got" to have 9/11 for his legacy file....
When are these idiot Democrats going to remember that they are actually American citizens holding jobs for which they swore an oath to defend our Constitution - not themselves and their party?
Nolite me conculcare!
Tex Expatriate| 10.7.10 @ 2:05PM
Lincoln was indeed strong, tough, and sturdy, but his war against the Confederate States of America was aggression and caused him to be responsible for the deaths of more than 600,000 Americans. He did not "face down" the destruction of the country. He destroyed it. And by establishing an unconstitutional strong national government, he began the destruction of Federalism.
It's not just today's Democrats who ignore the Constitution.
Todd S| 10.7.10 @ 3:42PM
I am a conservative and I find your bashing of Lincoln repulsive. If you were willing to look at Lincoln honestly, you would understand he saved the country and not "destroyed" it like you say. As he said, a house divided cannot stand. If the south had actually succeeded in succession, it would have become a backwards morally degraded country clinging to the immoral practice of slavery. And blaming Lincoln for creating an unconstitutional Federal government is a red herring, that blame goes to progressives like Woodrow Wilson and FDR and continued by Obama and his socialist pals today.
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 4:21PM
No need to trash Lincoln.
But, what if say Bush had the army arrest the California legislature or if he suspended Habeus Corpus or if he exiled congressmen who disagreed with his policies? A lot may wish he had but what if he did?
Quartermaster| 10.7.10 @ 6:25PM
So you find "Lincoln bashing" repulsive. So what. The truth is what it is. Lincoln built the foundation that Wilson and FDR built on. There is a political straight line from Lincoln through Wilson, FDR, LBJ, Clinton to Obama.
It makes little difference how much you may hate that fact, it is there nevertheless. Grow up and get over it.
Todd S| 10.8.10 @ 12:50AM
Do you not see the irony of being told by a Lincoln basher to grow up and get over it? People like you have never gotten over the Civil War (much like many black people have not gotten over slavery), time for you to grow up and get over it I think.
So why don't any of you answer my question of what would have happened to the South if they had actually been able to succeed? I think my analysis is rather correct and they would have kept clinging to their slavery and been dwarfed by the industrial might of the North and it would have been an ugly situation for all involved. America does not become the greatest superpower in the history of the World and the events of the 20th century would have been very different (think WW2 and Communism).
I don't buy your argument about there being a straight line from Lincoln to the progressives, completely different ideologies and values. Lincoln never even considered a welfare state of any sort or been tainted by socialist progressive thought like Wilson and FDR and he would have been completely appalled by it all. I am not embarrassed for Lincoln to have been the founder of the Republican Party (like Ronald Reagan himself) and to have allowed this country to eliminate the evil of slavery though with a very high cost but I believe it was God's will. Do you wish to tell me slavery was not evil? You can't without being racist. I actually can't stand anyone who says they are conservatives and put Lincoln in the same category as Wilson and FDR because it is bullshit. Name me one serious conservative thinker with any credibility that has ever said anything like that? You are on the lunatic fringe
AnyoneButNewt| 10.7.10 @ 10:22AM
No surprises here. This entire regime only recently became "really proud of their country."
Gene| 10.7.10 @ 11:00AM
Has anyone told this goober yet that he cannot run for mayor? That he HAS to have lived there for a year. That just renting out a residence that you own does n0t count as living there, under the law?
Albert| 10.7.10 @ 11:19AM
The Rahmster is a Democrat. By definition that means he can run for anything. President Bozo can't document his claim to be a "natural born citizen" yet he is President. Jerry Brown was unqualified according to the California Constitution to be Attorney General, yet he is. For Democrats, actual, legal qualifications do not matter. There is and always will be a court somewhere that will rule accordingly.
Tim*| 10.7.10 @ 11:01AM
Emanuel is a Deconstructionist Agendist .
Al Adab| 10.7.10 @ 11:17AM
Just another example of how self-centered these people are. No one ever had a harder job, or faced tougher issues, or was so competent or ...! They simply see themselves as the center of the universe.
As to his Illinois/Chicago residency, all the permanent residents of the cemeteries will certainly be enough to elect him. After all, he is part of the self-annointed elite who must rule over us. They know best what is good for us plebs.
CharlieEcho| 10.7.10 @ 12:07PM
A great article Mr. Blackwell. Good comments too. History and conversation. Lets hope "these Democrats" reap what they sow and the rest of us are able to rise above.
Radioman777| 10.7.10 @ 1:46PM
Emanuel's remarks only serve to illustrate what we all instinctively knew. The WH and all its current inhabitants are severely divorced from reality.
Doctor Right| 10.7.10 @ 1:57PM
I don't understand all the hulla-balloo about Emmanuel's statements.
If you have to ask "How could he say that?" then you clearly don't understand the minds of Liberals.
Liberals are NEVER wrong.
Failure does NOT cause them to introspective, and examine their own actions of policies. It merely causes them to look elsewhere to lay the blame: Republicans (always the default), the lazy electorate, the right-wing cosnpiracy, FOX News, etc.
In the same vein, every task a Liberal undertakes is Herculean by definition. That's because they have to roll-back so many years of Republican misdeeds and mismanagement before they can actually begin to "fix" anything! So, of course things are still "bad", because their policies haven't had time to work yet...It's positively unfair!!!
In their minds, Liberals are the ultimate heroes.
So of course...as Rahm Emmanuel states, Obama is:
"...the toughest leader any country could ask for in the toughest times any president has faced."
Reality has NOTHING to do with it.
artesian jacket| 10.10.10 @ 8:16PM
"Sow the soil around Atlanta with salt"? Why? You damned Yankees burned it to the ground. When my grandfather was part of a mob that ran a carpet bagger out of his small Georgia town, they put a sign around his neck. "Git you Goddamn Yankee git" My sentiments, exactly.