Loser Rahm Emanuel Wins

That was fast. Less than 24 hours after Barack Obama won the presidential election, he proved his detractors right. Change is an empty slogan for Obama, a marketing ploy used to make fatigued and grateful Democrats disbelieve their own eyes, ears and memories. While an official announcement has yet to be made, it appears that Congressman Rahm Emanuel will be named White House chief of staff.

Emanuel is Chair of the democrats Congressional Campaign Committee and has been credited with engineering the 2006 return to the majority. Yet the Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in spite of Emanuel's strategy, not because of it. John Walsh (scroll down for story) explained it all in Counterpunch back in November 2006.

"Long ago Rahm chose 22 key races, open or Republican seats, where Dems might win. By any reasonable criteria, all the candidates chosen by Rahm, save perhaps for one, were pro-war as is Emanuel himself. In two cases Rahm had to put in considerable dollars and effort in the primaries to drive out antiwar candidates. He drove out Cegelis in Illinois's 6th CD, at the cost of one million dollars, in favor of Tammy ("Stay the course") Duckworth who lost in the general election. In California's 11th CD primary, Emanuel backed the prowar Steven Filson who lost to the antiwar candidate, Jerry McNerney, who went on to win in the general election."

Looking at all 22 candidates hand-picked by Rahm, we find that 13 were defeated, and only 8 won! (3) (One is still undecided.) [Note: 9 eventually won] And remember that this was the year of the Democratic tsunami and that Rahm's favorites were handsomely financed by the DCCC. Tammy Duckworth, for example, was infused with $3 million ­ and was backed in the primary by HRC, Barack Obama, John Kerry, etc. The Dems have picked up 28 seats so far, maybe more. So out of that 28, Rahm's choices accounted for 8 [Note: 9]! Since the Dems only needed 15 seats to win the House, Rahm's efforts were completely unnecessary. Had the campaign rested on Rahm's choices, there would have been only 8 or 9 new seats, and the Dems would have lost. In fact, Rahm's efforts were probably counterproductive for the Dems since the great majority of voters were antiwar and they were voting primarily on the issue of the war (60% according to CNN). But Rahm's candidates were not antiwar. So Rahm Emanuel nearly seized defeat from the jaws of victory."

At Black Agenda Report we have been saying all year long that Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton were "political twins." Now that Obama has won, it looks like Clinton administration retreads will be his top advisers and cabinet members. Lawrence Summers may be headed to the Treasury department and Emanuel will be Obama's second in command.

I'm sorry to burst the bubbles of those of you who wept in ecstasy just two days ago, but the truth is still the truth. Obama's chief of staff is a pro-war democrat who couldn't figure out how to beat republicans when the voters had turned against them. His appointment is a signal not only that endless war will remain on the table, but that the choice of Obama over Clinton was a meaningless one. Obama is smarter and savier than Hillary Clinton and he used those skills to be favored by more big money people than she was. That is why he is the president elect.

Face it. There will still be a Clinton in the White House. The people at the top of the establishment pyramid will always be friends. Nothing changes among the power elite. They are the biggest cynics on earth and they don't believe most of what they tell us. Obama and Bill Clinton will be thick as thieves and triangulation will still be the order of the day. If it weren't, Emanuel's name would not be atop the adviser rumor mill.