Emanuel Now in Chicago

There are some politicians for whom setbacks serve only to make them stronger. Rahm Emanuel is one of them. A former member of the House of Representatives, former aide to former President Clinton and former Chief of Staff for Barack Obama, he was elected mayor of Chicago a few days ago in the first-round election with 55 percent of the vote — a real bombshell. Only a few months ago, he was leaving Washington, where he had worked since Obama’s victory as the new president’s right-hand man.

The task he took charge of was exciting but potentially thankless: to make the great expectations for change that the new occupant of the White House had raised during his campaign a reality. At the height of the recession, criticism soon began to emanate from every sector that either rejected the reforms or wanted them to be more radical. Now he has conquered Chicago, a city that has been run, with brief intervals, by the Daleys (father and son) since 1955, supported by a Democrat machinery almost as old as the city, which has a well-established Irish presence.

Because of this, an almost mythical relationship between Chicago and the Daleys was created, and celebrated in a film from the 1950s — The Last Hurrah — starring Spencer Tracy, whose character was a reflection of the life of Daley senior.

Rahm Emanuel was a very tough gatekeeper of the Oval Office who distinguished himself by controlling access to the president with an iron fist. So much so that there were complaints against the chief officer, in spite of the fact that his strength was supposed to be his knowledge and negotiating skill with legislators. However, a re-positioning in keeping with his merits was required, and Chicago, with its capacity to elect outside of the majority, was a great opportunity.

The victory of the former chief of staff is even more notable because it was achieved with the opposition of part of that Democratic Party machinery, which supported Gery Chico, the younger Daley’s candidate who only obtained 24 percent of the vote. In any case, Emanuel realized precisely how to take his own advice that you must take advantage of crises. His success at the polls is irrefutable proof of that.