Word: chief
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Though they hail from the same state, the new President and his chief of staff are an unusual pair. Two years before Barack Obama was elected President, Emanuel jokingly noted as much in a speech at Washington's annual white-tie Gridiron Club dinner: "Senator Obama and I don't just share a home state. We also share exotic names that were given to us by our fathers--Barack, which in Swahili means 'blessed,' and Rahm, which, roughly translated from Hebrew, means 'go screw yourself...
...standing on a table and screaming. And yet the early signs of how he will be running things at the no-drama Obama White House are auspicious: Emanuel, 49, has run the smoothest presidential transition in modern history. Obama "is thrilled with him," says David Axelrod, the President's chief political strategist. "He has said he's sure he made the right decision on this...
Obama insiders credit the new chief of staff for many of the transition team's more agile moves. Take the agonizing choice of a Secretary of the Treasury. Obama's personal inclination was to tap New York Federal Reserve chief Timothy Geithner, who had been intricately involved in devising last year's $700 billion financial-bailout package. But he also wanted the expertise of the ferociously brainy Larry Summers, who had held the Treasury job and wanted it again. So Obama and Emanuel worked out a deal to get both by convincing Summers to take a post inside the White...
...easy to see a big personality like Emanuel blending into the background--a quality every bit as important as top-notch organizational and political skills to being a successful chief of staff. The best of them are the ones who, by all outward appearances, have no motives or identity outside those of the President. "You are hired for your judgment. You are not hired with an independent agenda," explains Ken Duberstein, who held the job for six months under Ronald Reagan. "When you speak, the voice people hear is the President's voice, not your own." Indeed, if you ever...
...chief of staff, Emanuel will have to act as a traffic cop, referee and gatekeeper, deciding which decisions go to the President and which don't and guarding against end runs to the Oval Office. That's not exactly a formula for making or keeping friends. "You say no most of the time and let the President say yes," says Erskine Bowles, who held the chief of staff job and worked alongside Emanuel in the Clinton White House. "Rahm will always have the backbone to say no." But just as crucial is making sure that once he does, the bickering...