For Obama, appointing Rahm Emanuel chief of staff would be more than just designating a "bad cop," or reaching out to the Clinton camp. As Ezra Klein and I wrote in our August cover story on Obama's party-building strategy, one of the stranger things about the Illinois senator's close relationship with Tom Daschle, the other leading candidate for chief of staff, was that for all the Daschle team's competence in running the Obama campaign (with a blueprint initially drawn up for Daschle himself), they hadn't, alas, done an awesome job managing a House caucus.
Remember the run-up to the Iraq war? The Bush tax cuts? That whole ugly period of progressive do-nothingness? When Nancy Pelosi came to power and successfully rebuffed President Bush's plan to privatize Social Security, she was hailed as the un-Daschle. The former leader's reputation had been seriously damaged, not just by the loss of his own congressional seat, but by the the evidence that Democrats actually could fight back against the Bush administration.
Daschle is a leader on health care reform and a wise mentor in the ways of Washington. He would be an able Cabinet member in Health or Human Services or some other policy role. But he's not necessarily the guy you want cajoling the Blue Dogs or picking off moderate Republican senators. In many ways, Daschle's legislative prowess has been spent. Rahm, on the other hand, despite his wrong-headed initial opposition to Howard Dean's 50 state strategy, remains a Washington institution. And to avoid the missteps and blundering of the early Clinton days, that is what Obama wants.
--Dana Goldstein
