Former White House chief of staff and Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel confirmed Wednesday that he is considering a run for president in 2028 on the Democratic ticket, taking advantage of a vacuum in leadership.
Crain’s Chicago Business reported: “’Of course’ it’s fair to say he’s considering running for president, declared Rahm Emanuel, hands for the moment neither waving nor pointing but resting on the table. ‘I’m looking at the (Democratic) field and, most importantly, what I have to contribute.’”
Emanuel was the architect of Democrats’ victory in the 2006 midterm elections, when they ran socially moderate candidates in swing districts to woo Republican voters who had soured on the Iraq War and were looking for alternatives.
As Obama’s chief of staff, Emanuel began implementing an ambitious left-wing agenda, despite the fact that most voters thought the economy should have been the new administration’s top priority. Emanuel famously explained the bait-and-switch to the Wall Street Journal: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.”
However, the Obama agenda proved to be too radical even for Emanuel. When he recommended that the administration pursue a more incremental approach to health care reform, he was overruled. In the end, Obamacare passed — but polarized the country and led to the rise of the Tea Party in the 2010 midterms.
Emanuel left the White House before that moment, and ran for mayor of Chicago. His tenure was widely viewed as unsuccessful, marred by constant clashes with teachers’ unions and by confrontations with the beginnings of the Black Lives Matter movement. Emanuel’s penchant for foul language and his perceived arrogance also made it difficult for him to earn trust or to build broad coalitions within city politics.
In the past few years, Emanuel has re-emerged as a moderate voice, cautioning a Democratic Party that continues to advocate radical left-wing policies and tactics despite its recent defeats at the ballot box.
Having served in the relatively obscure but prestigious position of Ambassador to Japan, he is poised to take advantage of yet another crisis — namely, the vacuum in credible leadership within the Democratic Party.
He is the first political figure to acknowledge an interest in the presidential race, and would likely have connections to Wall Street donors — thanks to his past controversial involvement on the board of Freddie Mac prior to the subprime mortgage crisis. However, Emanuel would likely run into the same political challenges that bedeviled his time as mayor. His party may simply be too “woke” for him to have a chance.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of Trump 2.0: The Most Dramatic ‘First 100 Days’ in Presidential History, available for Amazon Kindle. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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