Why Obama needs Rahm at the top

WASHINGTON POST, 2/21/2010 by Dana Milbank - Let us now praise Rahm Emanuel. ∴ No, seriously. [Excerpt]: Obama's first year fell apart in large part because he didn't follow his chief of staff's advice on crucial matters. Arguably, Emanuel is the only person keeping Obama from becoming Jimmy Carter. ∴ Obama chose the profane former Clinton adviser for a reason. Where the president is airy and idealistic, Rahm is earthy and calculating. One thinks big; the other, a former House Democratic Caucus chair, understands the congressional mind, in which small stuff counts for more than broad strokes. ∴ Obama's problem is that his other confidants -- particularly Valerie Jarrett and Robert Gibbs, and, to a lesser extent, David Axelrod -- are part of the Cult of Obama. In love with the president, they believe he is a transformational figure who needn't dirty his hands in politics. ∴ The president would have been better off heeding Emanuel's counsel. Read more at the Washington Post...