"Now They're Finally Serious"

Early last year, there was an article in the New York Times on Barack Obama that really made me question his political intelligence. Recounting Obama's first year in the Senate, the article discussed how Obama wanted to vote in favor of confirming John Roberts to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Obama believed that Roberts deserved confirmation because of his strong judicial background and sterling legal credentials. Obama's Senate chief of staff, Pete Rouse, a Capitol Hill veteran and one of the most-respected staffers in Washington, protested Obama's inclination.

Rouse, who had come over to Obama's office from Tom Daschle's staff after Daschle was ousted the previous November, told it to Obama straight. A vote in favor of Roberts would be an enormous mistake because, regardless of credentials, it would be a political headache later for the freshly-minted Illinois Senator. Every time Roberts would hand down an opinion which did not gibe with Democrats and liberals, it would come back to haunt Obama if he voted "aye", something which could be problematic down the line, especially if Obama had national aspirations (which was pretty clear even then). Obama wisely took Rouse's advice, and voted against Roberts, who was easily confirmed.

The reason this story stuck with me was because it really demonstrated Obama's political naivety and his lack of savvy early in his career. A vote for Roberts for a liberal Democrat -- especially one who wanted to perhaps run for President in the future -- would have been plainly stupid. That Obama even considered it made me think Obama was not as smart as I thought. My initial candidate, Hillary Clinton, voted no, and I have zero doubt that she did not once think twice about. She understood the issues at play.

I think that Obama's rough primary campaign against Hillary, and the general against McCain have hardened the once naive junior senator, and have made him politically wiser. His selection of Rahm Emanuel to be his top aide proves that.

I never questioned whether Rahm would be a good choice for the post, I just wondered if Obama's cautious, calm style of leadership would fit with the hard-charging Emanuel. That he picked him came as a surprise to me initially, but the more I think about, the more it makes sense as today's Barack Obama is not the same Barack Obama of 2005 or even later. Today's Obama is much sharper politically, and he is willing to get his hands dirty to achieve the objective he wants. Rahm is a great pick to this end. While he is not a friend of Republicans, he is smart, shrewd, and really, pragmatic. He is a guy who gets things done.

In 2005, after the Democrats had absorbed another shellacking at the polls, Nancy Pelosi tap Emanuel to head the DCCC. The rest, as they say, is history, as Emanuel helped re-write the electoral playbook for the party, and is as responsible for the party's resurgence in the last few years as anybody. At that time, GOP Majority Leader Tom DeLay, himself no stranger to bare-knuckle politics remarked "now they're finally serious." To a large extent, I think Rahm's selection as chief of staff shows that Obama is serious about implementing his national agenda.