Will Rahm Emanuel run in 2028?
Yes, Rahm Emanuel – remember him? I do, and when I first heard that he might be thinking of running for president in 2028 it occurred to me that he might be the Democrats’ best hope, for the simple reason that compared to the other Democrat possibilities he’s not so far to the left. That was, after all, the stance that led Bill Clinton to victory in 1992 after the Reagan-Bush the First years, although of course because the party itself has moved a great deal to the left since then, positioning oneself as being more moderate would ordinarily place a candidate to the left of the Bill Clinton of 1992.
However, Emanuel has one enormous drawback that may make it impossible for him to win the Democratic primary – he’s Jewish, and also tied to Israel. Anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment is rife in the Democratic Party. That’s probably why Kamala Harris chose Tim Walz as her running mate rather than Shapiro of Pennsylvania, who almost certainly would otherwise have been a great deal more helpful to her chances of victory.
Emanuel was born to Israeli parents who had moved to Chicago. His father fought in the Irgun, an Israeli paramilitary organization in pre-state Israel that helped fight the British to gain independence. …
Israel has not been a focal point of Emanuel’s early messaging, but his diplomatic tenure in Japan – where he broadened his role to encompass all of Asia – underscores his global perspective, a trait that could appeal to Democrats seeking a seasoned leader, notes Politico Magazine. High-level Democrats who know Emanuel view his candidacy as almost inevitable. “20 years ago it would have been an article in The Onion,” said Doug Sosnik, a former Clinton White House colleague, who now sees Emanuel as uniquely qualified. David Axelrod, a longtime friend, agreed, asking, “Who has more relevant experience?” and highlighting Emanuel’s blunt style and winning instincts.
I bet Israel “has not been a focal point” for Emanuel. He’s no dummy, and he knows that sympathy for Israel is a drawback in his own party.
And there’s one more drawback. It’s a superficial one, but I think it also matters: Emanuel is 5’7″, and that seems to be a drawback in presidential elections.
However, I confess that I have a soft spot in my heart for Emanuel, because he studied ballet in his youth. And not just a little bit, but a lot, and apparently was quite good at it:
Emanuel studied dance in Evanston, later majored in dance at Sarah Lawrence College, turned down a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, and there he was, talking of his days in tights.
NOTE: I’m not ready to start an “Election 2028” category yet, so I won’t.
I’m guessing that he will not run, since everyone will correctly see it as Obama’s fourth term.
Fun fact: as a youth, Emanuel sliced off part of a finger working at Arby’s. So he has more street cred than Kamala.
I don’t see how Trump and Musk can ever allow donkey control of government again. Donks in control means vendetta to the death against both men.
Rahm Emanuel may be less of a longshot and more palitiable to “normal voters” than characters like Gavin Newsom or Andrew Cuomo, both of whom carry a lot more political baggage along with the standard delusions of grandeur and lack of personal accountability that is stereotypical of such figures. This assumes that the powers-that-be in the Demcrat party are still able to accept presidential candidates who are in any way appealing to regular people (meaning not insane, personally repulsive, or laden with negative bagage).
Rahm is a Clinton stooge, always has been. He did a horrible job as mayor of Chicago, avoiding the Daley “yay to cops and safe streets”/get things done e with patronage method in favor of more left-wing governance and teachers union support power base, which is why he was defenestrated first by Lori lightfoot and now the disastrous Johnson. Pritzker has been spending the money and placing personnel to have a very firm grasp on the remaining Illinois machine and touting himself as the way to govern progressively and rehab the blue state model. Which was easy to say when he had uncle Sam’s covid credit card, but not so much now that he has to pay a living wage, fix tier 2 pensions, without raising taxes while also doing union and planned parenthood giveaways in a broke state whose unemployment rate is lagging way behind the free-er midwestern states and where the base that does the political work outside the unions is more communist than AOC. He has been all over the place in Iowa, New Hampshire, trying to be the big man against orange man bad. Pritzker is the one to watch from Illinois, not Rahm.
How many NGOs do the Pritzkers have? Almost 40 or something. If true, by 2028, anyone who had an NGO will be considered a radioactive looter. Of course the donks are trying to move to the hot civil war so ‘28 is over the horizon at the moment.
He did a horrible job as mayor of Chicago
Exactly. I’d be happy if he continued being invisible.
I should think that his close ties to the Clinton’s would be Sarin level toxic.
Well there is a crisis in the Democrat party, wouldn’t want to waste it.
‘Do you want a finger with those fries?’
NOTE: I’m not ready to start an “Election 2028” category yet, so I won’t.
I was specifically told that Trumphitler was going to suspend future elections and declare himself dictator, so there will be no need for this.
His brother would also be a problem for him.
Re: Rahm Emanuel / Murder of Laquan McDonald
While Mayor of Chicago, Emanuel also got on the wrong side of the BLM types:
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On October 20, 2014, in Chicago, Illinois, Laquan McDonald, a 17-year-old boy, was fatally shot by Chicago Police officer Jason Van Dyke. Police had initially reported that McDonald was behaving erratically while walking down the street, refusing to put down a knife, and that he had lunged at officers. Preliminary internal police reports described the incident similarly, leading to the shooting being judged as justifiable, and Van Dyke not being charged at the time. This was later disproved after a video of the encounter was released, showing that McDonald was walking away.
The video of the shooting was initially withheld from the public for more than a year, which later sparked criticism for the delay. On November 24, 2015, thirteen months after the shooting, a court ordered the police to release a dash cam video of the shooting. It showed that McDonald was walking away from the police when he was shot 16 times by Officer Van Dyke.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Laquan_McDonald
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This happened just before a difficult election for Emanuel. It was widely suspected the video was buried in order not to damage Emanuel’s chances. In any event the black community in Chicago blamed Emanuel for policing and violence.
I’m not sure how much this story from ten years ago would affect Emanuel in 2028. Presumably it wouldn’t help.
Chases Eagles – here is a start on the Pritzker NGO webs… https://www.influencewatch.org/non-profit/pritzker-family-foundation/
It isn’t just JB and MK. It’s the whole family. Penny, James/”Jennifer,” etc.
It’s too soon to say much about 2026, much less 2028.
Right now, the Dems have record low approval, going back to the time of GHWB, but we should keep in mind that two years after that previous low, Bill Clinton won the White House (albeit with help from Perot). Likewise, GWB won three upset victories in a row (2000, 2002, 2004), and won the popular vote in 2004, only to see the Dems recapture the House for the first time since 1994 two years later. The GOP shocked the country by capturing the House for the first time in four decades in 1994, only to lose to Clinton just 2 years later.
OTOH, both the Bushes made a whole bunch of unforced mistakes right after their successful wins. In every case mentioned, the GOP ran and won on social and/or nationalist/defense issues, but tried to govern as the voice of the Chamber of Commerce, with lots of ‘free trade’ and ‘entitlement reform’ and so forth. So far, Donald Trump has not repeated that mistake.
Ron DeSantis has demonstrated in Florida that it’s possible turn purple State red through competent governance, even against the tide of inflowing Dems from blue States. Trump might well be able to do the same nationally, if he plays his cards right and avoids overreach or unforced errors.
As for the Dems, it should be remembered that the first two years of the Clinton Administration looked a _lot_ like the Obama Administration. That was the period in 93-94 when Hillary was the real power, calling shots after saving Clinton’s campaign from the first round of scandals in 1992. She pushed things way lefty, and as a result the GOP recaptured the House for the first time in 40 years or so.
That broke Hillary’s power and left Bill free to triangulate, and the GOP played into his hands by governing on their least popular agenda items. From 1994 to 2000, the left agenda was still being enacted, but slowly and below the radar.
But here’s thing: the progressive activist wing of the party hated every minute of Bill’s successful period from 94 to 2000. They had to pretend to like it, they had to back him since he was their sole link to power, but they also had to pretend to be moderate and they _hate_ that.
So now, in a somewhat parallel situation, the hard-core progressive activists who have dominated the Party since 2008 are determined to make sure they don’t get back benched again, no matter what.
Rahm is an odd duck, taking ballet lessons as a teen, and attending Sarah Lawrence College, a women’s school. SL and Bennington were in his day the two most “progressive” (Gag!) schools for women, and the two most expensive. But maybe he thought, “Chicks galore”.
His brother Ezekiel, the one-time medical oncologist, has disturbing characteristics, and is not/was not in medicine to help patients.
@HC68:the progressive activist wing of the party hated every minute of Bill’s successful period from 94 to 2000.
Similarly, the GOPe hated every minute of the 1994 – 1998 Gingrich Revolution and drove him out as soon as they could. He was described in the media in terms very similarly to how Trump is described today, but that’s hard to separate out from their Emmanuel Goldstein treatment of any Republican leader.
Given the current leadership’s doubling down on the most radical of leftist positions, such as fighting to prevent the deportation of Tren Aragua monsters… will there for practical purposes even be a democrat party in 2028? I imagine that at one time, the Whig party seemed like it would always exist.
Dr death panel yes hes an odd duck
The Labour party was at this point after thatchers second election
Don’t know about the presidential run but Rahm might be a good pick for the foreign policy work, especially dealing with Putin. Everyone in New York knows you need a Jewish gangster to take care of a Russian gangster.
@LL:Rahm might be a good pick for the foreign policy work, especially dealing with Putin
I hesitate to have any Democrats with influence on foreign policy. The days when you could count on them to put American interests first, as opposed to those of the Davos or Brussels crowd, are forty years behind us.
Emanuel angrily sent a Democrat pollster a dead fish, and was presented with one himself as a joke by his staff when he left his job as Obama’s chief of staff.
https://www.chicagotribune.com/2010/10/02/from-the-archives-rahms-fish-tale-just-wont-sleep/
Re J. B. Pritzker, hopefully the country is not ready for someone who President Trump said “makes Chris Christie look svelte.” Warning – this picture is truly gross:
https://www.mchenrycountyblog.com/2025/03/23/pritzker-unable-to-buy-presidential-love-one-percenter-a-two-percenter/
@ Chases Eagles > “Of course the donks are trying to move to the hot civil war so ‘28 is over the horizon at the moment.”
In re hot civil war, I’m going to bump a link that Snow on Pine posted late on a Saturday thread.
Pray to God that it never comes to this, but He doesn’t seem to have much influence over the Democrat leadership and activists right now.
https://thelawdogfiles.substack.com/p/monsters
“@HC68:the progressive activist wing of the party hated every minute of Bill’s successful period from 94 to 2000.
Similarly, the GOPe hated every minute of the 1994 – 1998 Gingrich Revolution and drove him out as soon as they could. He was described in the media in terms very similarly to how Trump is described today, but that’s hard to separate out from their Emmanuel Goldstein treatment of any Republican leader.”
The reason for that is that American politics have been dominated since the first Bush Administration by an alliance of right-wing business interests and lefty ‘limousine liberal’ social activists. This is the more so because both these groups are dominated by members of the same social class. The ‘liberal transnationalists’. The Uniparty. It goes by a bunch of semi-descriptive terms.
While the business wing of the GOP and the lefty liberals of the Dems don’t necessarily _like_ each other, their interests mostly lie together. Both want weaker borders, unlimited immigration, to dissolve sovereign nation-states, rule by technocrats, etc.
Which is why policy broadly stayed the same (with a few specific exceptions) under Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, and Obama. It’s why the Uniparty tried to set things up so that the 2016 election would be a choice of…a Bush or a Clinton. More Of The Same.
Even back in 1994, the problem existed. The GOP gained control of Congress, for the first time in about 40 years, because of Hillary Clinton’s (because she was in charge in 1993-94) overreach on social issues and health care. But TPTB had no interest in opposing that, they wanted free trade and ‘entitlement reform’ and business deregulation and cheap labor. Gingrich may or may not have understood the problem, but he wasn’t able to do anything that the base voters had been voting for, because the dominant factions in the GOP allied with Clinton to block him.
Heck, it goes back farther. In 1976, Reagan mounted an impressive challenge to Gerald Ford, making him the natural front runner for 1980. But TPTB in the GOP more or less told him that he either picked GHWB as his veep candidate or they’d sabotage the election and give Carter four more years. Sure enough, after Reagan was gone GHWB steered the GOP back toward the patrician northeastern soft-liberal mode that the business wing supported, and the GOP stopped getting landslides and started struggling again. The northeastern liberal GOP is _unpopular_ .
Even now, with Trump ascendant, a lot of the Congressional GOP, esp. on the Senate side, are stalling and hoping to ride it out and go back to ‘normal’. Rumor has it that the proposed NASA funding bill, in its Senate version, basically funds everything as usual and blocks all of Trump and Musks’ proposed changes. I suspect a lot of GOP Senators and some GOP Representatives are hoping they can eventually force Trump to sign ‘business as usual’ bills, even today.
It wouldn’t take much of that to give control back to the Dems in 2026.
“Given the current leadership’s doubling down on the most radical of leftist positions, such as fighting to prevent the deportation of Tren Aragua monsters… will there for practical purposes even be a democrat party in 2028? I imagine that at one time, the Whig party seemed like it would always exist.” — Geoffrey Brittain
That depends almost entirely on Trump and the GOP. If they play their cards right, they can force the Dems into a nearly prostrate position for 2026 and 2028. If the Dems blow their reaction, their party could indeed shatter, at least for a time. The opportunity does exist.
But if Trump and the GOP screw up, the Dems could come roaring back in 2026 and 2028. It’s balanced on a razor’s edge. And simple luck will play a role, too, because it always does.
There’s a legend that some 20C British prime minister had just been put into office and a functionary asked him what he thought would be the biggest thing that shaped his government, and he supposedly answered: “Events, dear boy, events.”
Politics works like that.
it was actually worse than that, the GOpe kicked Newt out and allowed a deeply compromised Hastert as speaker, he was the one that gave Abramoff free reign and thus allowed the dems to cheer on ‘their culture of corruption’ narrative, along with the Katrina matter and other elements,
“it was actually worse than that, the GOpe kicked Newt out and allowed a deeply compromised Hastert as speaker, he was the one that gave Abramoff free reign and thus allowed the dems to cheer on ‘their culture of corruption’ narrative, along with the Katrina matter and other elements,” — miguel cervantes
To be fair, though, Gingrich was a much better rebel leader than majority leader. Gingrich has always been a frustrating personality. He’s _very_ intelligence and perceptive, he can put his finger on the pulse of the GOP electorate, at least during campaigns, and he has a sense of where Dem weak points are. Yet he has a proven track record of fumbling handling the GOPe and the nuts and bolts of retail politics in Congress. He seemed incapable of quite getting his mind around the total indifference to truth on Bill Clinton’s part, too.
As an individual, he’ll go for months or years at time, saying the right things, mostly doing the right things, and then suddenly he’s sitting on a sofa with Nancy Pelosi in an ad banging on about global warming. He’s erratic.