Rahm's fighting the Dem leadership to run for President!

I've been saying for months that the Dems would eventually tack towards the center, otherwise the GOP would run circles around them. Is Rahm the guy? Will this happen soon? Answers: 1. not sure. 2. probably not.

Rahm is whip smart, articulate and a reasonable centrist. He's not afraid to call out his own party. Kind of a Bill Maher candidate.

Was he a good mayor? Not particularly. He presided over massive tax increases which continue to plague Chicago's economy. He did add some jobs, but the City continued to lose population and lagged by NYC and US overall in GDP growth. Crime stagnated and eventually his career got cut short by his disasterous handling of the Laquan McDonald shooting.

So, a smart articulate fellow, with good ideas and a lacklaster track record while in office.

Rahm's ready for a fight

Alex Thompson, Axios News

Jan 11, 2025

💥 WATER VALLEY, Miss. — Rahm Emanuel is coming, whether Democrats like it or not.

"There's two wings in our party right now, and I hope to dominate one of them," Emanuel, the fiery former Chicago mayor, told Axios in Mississippi last week as he tested his potential 2028 run for president with a focus on education.

"There's a resistance wing dominated by Gavin [Newsom]. And there's a renewal wing that will be as forceful in fighting for America as the other wing is in fighting Trump."

Why it matters: Emanuel — chief of staff under President Obama and a senior adviser to President Clinton — is betting that come 2028, the country and Democratic primary voters will be less focused on President Trump than the party's base is now.

He's hoping that his combination of being moderate on policy with a decidedly not-moderate temperament will distinguish himself among the other center-left candidates in the 2028 field.

In his pitch, Emanuel zings Trump and Republicans, but also targets other factions of his party — old and new.

Emanuel got a warm reception Wednesday night in Water Valley, a rural town of about 3,500 a half-hour drive from the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

Brandon Presley, Mississippi's Democratic nominee for governor in 2023 who ran the most competitive Democratic campaign in the state since 1999, hosted Emanuel at his home with locals and then introduced him at a town hall that drew more than 100 people.

Emanuel got lots of head nods as he honed in on his education plans — including expanding the school day and year, focusing on phonics and other basics — topics he's touted for months while plotting a 2028 run.

📚 There were two reasons for Emanuel's visit: Mississippi, long one of the nation's worst-ranked states in student test scores, has increased reading levels over the past decade through some education changes he supports.

And the state — along with the rest of the South — will be key in a Democratic presidential primary.

🐘 Reality check: Water Valley is in rural Mississippi but residents said it isn't politically representative of other rural areas in the deep-red state.

One attendee at Emanuel's town hall noted that Water Valley boasted a business branded as "the only queer book store" in Mississippi.

Zoom in: Emanuel got the biggest applause of the night when he pledged to ban social media for all kids aged 16 and younger.

"This is a drug," he said. "It is nothing else but a drug."

"Democrats used to have a 20-point advantage on education over Republicans that has disappeared," he said later. "You cannot tell me what Kamala Harris and Joe Biden's educational policy was, or what other Democratic leaders' education reform policies are."

💻 Emanuel also told Axios the Obama administration became far too cozy with the tech industry, which he said contributed to those companies having too much power today.

The intrigue: Emanuel's steps toward a 2028 campaign have divided Democratic operatives who've known him for decades.

Longtime Democratic operative Ron Klain told a House panel last summer: "I think [Emanuel] will head fake a lot but I do not think in the end Rahm will run."

David Axelrod, who's known Emanuel for decades and worked with him in Obama's White House, told Axios: "My read is that he's very serious and is on a year-end timetable for a go, no-go decision. But he's absolutely doing many of the things someone who is serious would need to do to take that next step."

Prospective Democratic presidential candidates often consult ex-presidents such as Obama and Clinton for advice, but Emanuel is unique in having been a sounding board for both.

"I've talked to Clinton and Obama," he said, "but I gotta cut my own way."