I’m a Rahm agnostic. I think HCR was a huge win that he may deserve some credit for, but I don’t think he’s great at politics in the sense of winning elections or understanding how voters think outside-the-beltway. The fact that he cares so much about what Bobo thinks is evidence of the latter:
In March 2009, I wrote a column arguing that Obama was not the fiscal moderate he pretended to be. Rahm asked me to stop by his office that afternoon. I came wearing my asbestos underwear, but Rahm calmly made his case with graphs and charts.
Last year, I wrote a column opposing health care reform. First, I acknowledged the arguments for the bill. Then I criticized the lack of cost control. Rahm called that morning, but with a smile in his voice: “Hey, I loved your first four paragraphs!”
Over the summer, I wrote a tough column wondering if Obama had the tenacity to fight a long war in Afghanistan. That week, I ran into Rahm at a Bruce Springsteen concert. He was clearly angry and would barely shake my hand. “That column. …” he said, icily, and then walked away.
Or maybe he doesn’t care, maybe he views Bobo as a potentially useful idiot. That’s a waste of time too, as in the end Bobo is always going to go back to wanking about Burkean caution and the dangers of liberal overreach.
Or maybe Rahm was just angling for an overwritten send-off comparing him to Augie March and Urban Cowboy.
Chyron HR
I can think of three things wrong with that picture.
Culture of Truth
So Rahm spoke with Bobo twice, and on a 3rd encouter told him to go to hell. Not such a bad record.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Culture of Truth:
Good point.
Culture of Truth
Hey sometimes you gotta work the ref.
Like it or not, the Beltway cognoscenti read Bobo.
El Cid
Oh! If only brilliant columnists like Bobo believed that Obama had the “tenacity” to keep fighting a war which cannot be won and which is making the regional situation ever more dangerous! Then we’d be good!
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@Culture of Truth:
Yes, I think to me it demonstrates that Rahm understands how the Beltway works as well as not understanding how the non-Beltway works.
beltane
I don’t hate Rahm at all. Based upon everything I’ve read about him, though, it seems that he is out of touch with the America of 2010 in the same way that people like Chris Matthews are. Having lived in the Washington bubble for so long, their only reference point for viewing the country is to go back to the 1970’s and see things through the prism of the communities they grew up in. That America is dead, dead, dead, and all the nostalgia in the world won’t make it relevant.
Remfin
I can’t say Rahm was doing anything wrong here. He made two solid attempts to persuade someone, clearly learning from both of them and adjusting, and moved on. As dumb as Bobo’s stuff is, wouldn’t it have been a plus to have him writing good things instead of bad things?
This is probably a lesson other politicians should learn from. First, he tried facts and figures (the way Bobo claims to want to be informed) and that went nowhere. Then, he tried to make more of a personal connection and that also went nowhere. The conclusion being that Bobo is a completely-unpersuadable ass who has a story already made up in his mind and is sticking with it. And how helpful of him to publicize this to the world for us!
fasteddie9318
OK, Springsteen concert, fine, but what about the House showers? Any Rahm on Bobo action there?
beltane
@Chyron HR: Bruce Springsteen’s music is one of the ways they connect with RealAmerica. It’s exactly like white, upper-middle class suburbanites listening to hip-hop to get a feel for urban life in the projects. Musical tourism, I guess.
Culture of Truth
That sounds right. He is one of those people who is completely and totally at home in the relatively genteel Washington arena even as he probably envisions himself as a tough Chicago pol.
Jamie
Bobo talked to Rahm at a Springsteen concert.? It’s hard to know where to start on that one..
stuckinred
@Culture of Truth: You mean he is a Karma Chameleon?
Cris
Am I the only one who initially thought he meant this literally?
Culture of Truth
“Tough” in a town that reveres David Broder and George Will is not tough. For god’s sake, Bob Woodward is considered a hardball dude, but on tv he comes acrosss as a fop who would recoil in horror if he had to share a restaurant with a non-millionaire.
fasteddie9318
Does Bobo even care what he’s writing about or what he’s saying as long as he can name drop and convince his readers that he’s a Very Serious Fucker? He should start every column with “I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal. People know me. I’m very important. I have many leather-bound books and my apartment smells of rich mahogany.”
Except then I think he’d get into a fistfight with Friedman for pilfering his shtick.
ruemara
Is it still ok to not care about Rahm, at all? Because I don’t.
fasteddie9318
In fact, “My apartment smells of rich mahogany” might be a good tag for crap like this. Just sayin’.
Steve
I wonder if it’s true that Rahm might have a residency problem with getting on the ballot in Chicago.
arguingwithsignposts
I’m guessing Rahm doesn’t frequent the Applebee’s salad bar …
General Stuck
I’m a Rahm atheist. He simply does not exist, outside the sky media.
Culture of Truth
“this one time, at a Springsteen concert…”
FlipYrWhig
I think I remember reading somewhere that the Gore 1999-2000 campaign was very concerned about how everything played in the Times and Post. When they were critical, it stung, because they’re supposed to be friendlies — so they expended a lot of energy trying to please them. I wouldn’t be surprised if Emanuel felt similarly.
Tom
This thread brought to you by The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town!
The best thing about Rahm leaving is flashing back to all the wing-nut bloggers claiming he would never make it to the white house because of the Blogojevich scandal.
Ash Can
@Steve: I saw that too. The chairman of the board of elections doesn’t think it’ll keep him off the ballot, so maybe it won’t be an issue after all. What I do think is an issue is how much of a real Chicagoan Emanuel actually is. I don’t dislike him, and I think he was a decent representative of his district (which is right next to mine) when he was in Congress. However, he’s much more of a national-scene guy than a local-scene one. I honestly don’t know if he’ll end up getting my vote, simply for that reason.
Napoleon
Awesome – I hope Springsteen played Rahm the song named after my hometown, Youngstown, so he can be proud of the part he played in NAFTA which helped lay waste to Youngstown.
arguingwithsignposts
BTW, is anyone keeping count of how much name-dropping Bobo does? Like the time he talked about the Senator putting his hand on Bobo’s leg. If there’s anything that I hate about Village punditry, it’s the “I was talking to Famous Politician at the market last week” and the like. It’s a running White House Correspondents’ Dinner circle jerk.
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
I guess not, I have to settle for The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
geemoney
@fasteddie9318: I vote for “Corinthian Leather” but that might undermine what you’re trying to get across.
gizmo
Republicans like Brooks remain fixated on the spending side of the equation— they are always ranting about excessive government expenditures, while at the same time advocating for lower government revenues. One would think that basic accounting principles would apply, but apparently not….
Suck It Up!
I’m a Rham fan and I think we should wait to see what happens. I already like his idea of going around town and talking to the people. Curious to see what the opposition will say about him.
DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.
@arguingwithsignposts:
I find it remarkable. He also beats you over the head with cliched cultural references “a guy who lived by Walden Pond”, etc. I like cultural references when they’re funny or apropos but he does it…I’m actually not sure why he does it.
ACS
I’m pretty sure that this is the Afghanistan column that he’s talking about:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30brooks.html?_r=1&hp
It stuck in my mind because it is seriously one of the dumbest things Bobo has written (obviously that’s saying something). I can see why Rahm would have been pissed off.
Chyron HR
@Suck It Up!:
They will say, “Aaagh, I am showering here!”
Alternatively, “Aaagh, stop killing me to death with murder!”
Napoleon
It just occurred to me this is a little like Scrooge McDuck and Rich Uncle Pennybags going to a Woody Guthrie concert.
Omnes Omnibus
@DougJ is the business and economics editor for Balloon Juice.:
He meant Walt Hazleton, the custodian at Concord High School, right? He’s got that white saltbox with the gray roof. Great guy, fantastic softball player. It’s a shame about his daughter though.
Napoleon
@ACS:
That makes sense because this concert was a few days later in Washington.
http://www.brucespringsteen.net/live/2009setlists.html#20091102
scav
Random OT thought. Couldn’t one have a really really really seriously good costume party for Halloween populated only by the types of individuals Christine O’Donnell will insist she never was? Vidcams out. Add it O’Keefe (O’Halloween!) and it’d be epic.
Upper West
@fasteddie9318: . . . and my car smells of rich Corinthian leather
Upper West
@geemoney: you beat me to it. (should have read down)
Earl Butz
@Napoleon: Don’t assume Springsteen has any sympathies with, or is a “common man” just because he writes songs about them. He marries actresses and is a millionaire many times over.
He’s as much of a true populist as Rick Santelli is.
MikeJ
@Earl Butz: What would you have him do to prove his ideological purity? Not marry actresses? You’ve obviously never met an actual poor person, since every poor person I know would gladly marry an actress.
Omnes Omnibus
@Earl Butz: It is impossible to remember where you are from and know what people with who you grew up are going through? WTF is a real populist in your mind?
Cris
@Earl Butz: Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. Just because a guy finds a way to rise out of the working class doesn’t mean he turns into Ebeneezer Scrooge. I’m not a big fan, but I suspect the Boss remembers where he came from and understands that you can be wealthy and socially responsible.
You remind me of the people who refused to believe John Edwards could support populist policies because he’s rich. You’re both wrong.
Napoleon
@Earl Butz:
I actually do think he sympathizes with the average guy although I understand in part (large part?) his persona is an act and he plays a character. He has campaigned for the last 2 Dem candidates and although before that, and after he was a very popular act, he stayed out of politics about a year or so ago I went down to the Rock and Roll Hall of fame when they has a Springsteen exhibit out and low and behold one of the items was one of those cheap early 70’s concert posters you could have made at you local silk screen shop and the sign was for a concert he was doing as a fundraiser for McGovern.
Which by the way this weekend, I think it was on Kurt Anderson’s NPR show, they were talking about Woody Guthrie and it sounded like he was an “act” in large part as well.
Napoleon
@Napoleon:
And Google does not let me down.
Also it appears he did at least one other concert for McGovern with others including Simon and Garfunkel and Jackson Browne.
YellowJournalism
@scav: Actually, it occurred to me that you could have a great Christine O’Donnell Halloween costume by recycling your Sarah Palin one and adding a peaked hat and a broom.
Of course, that might have been part of your original Palin costume to begin with, so I guess you could instead recycle your Shannen Doherty 90210 costume from way back when, put on extra dark lipstick and cheap eye shadow, and hand out leaflets against masturbation between margaritas.
catclub
@Napoleon:
“It just occurred to me this is a little like Scrooge McDuck and Rich Uncle Pennybags going to a Woody Guthrie concert. ”
Um, maybe 25 years ago it would be that way. I suspect that now it is more like going to the Opera. To see and be seen at a significant cultural event. Pretend any song lyrics are in German if they might offend.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Let us look on the bright side – this episode isn’t half as terrifying as when Colin Powell took George W Bush on a shopping trip to the Pottery Barn.
agrippa
I do not have strong views about Rahm Emanuel; he was, probably, a good gate keeper/attack dog for Obama.
I do not care for Brooks. I read his stuff mainly because others read Brooks; not because he is a worthwhile read. Usually, he is not. I intend to forget to read his stuff.
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
He was probably just talking about the Acropolis.
Mnemosyne
@Earl Butz:
Patti Scialfa is an actress? I think that’s news to her. You must be thinking of Springsteen’s first wife, but they were divorced 20 years ago.
Mnemosyne
@Napoleon:
The last “authentic” musician was probably Kurt Cobain, and that’s probably why he ended up shooting himself in the head, too.
Pat
I do not read David Brooks. I only read what other people write about his columns. The same goes for Thomas Friedman. I especially like the way Dean Baker rips Friedman’s columns apart.
Bobo’s column sounds like he wants his readers to know that the rough, tough Rahmbo hangs on his every words, which of course just make me laugh out loud! Nice try Bobo, but I will continue to avoid your column like the plague and just read the snark that always follows! Its more informative and so much more entertaining!