Emanuel in middle of White House finger pointing

The celebration was a memorable one indeed. The last necessary state turned blue, and the United States of America had just elected its first African-American president (though that meme was always seemed odd to me since the guy is half black and that half wasn’t American). Jesse Jackson, the civil rights icon, waved his little (Chinese made?) America flag as he swayed, tears of joy streaming down his face. And then the message appeared at the bottom of the television screen: “Obama appoints Rahm Emanuel chief of staff.” That’s when you could be sure that AIPAC would control United States foreign policy for the next four years. Obama wasn’t kidding when he called himself a “stalwart friend” of “sacrosanct” Israel.

Those were heady times indeed, but now the grumblings about Emanuel’s influence are getting louder in light of Obama’s troubled presidency. There are those who say he allowed Emanuel to lead him in the wrong directions, and there are others who contend that Obama’s difficulties stem from not listening to the former Israel Defense Forces volunteer enough. Any way you slice it, Emanuel has a knack for stirring up people’s emotions behind the scenes, and it will be interesting to see who stays and who goes in the White House over the next couple of years.

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