Archival footage: Barack Obama has a sense of humor! About Rahm Emanuel anyway
Rahm Emanuel, the newly named White House chief of staff for President-elect Barack Obama, is known from Chicago's Loop to Washington's K Street as a mild-mannered, hilarious, exceptionally genial man for whom foul language is as rare as a Democratic victory in Cook County.
So it was shocking to come upon archival footage of a roast of Emanuel from three years ago to benefit research to cure epilepsy, which afflicts one of the children of David Axelrod, Obama's chief political strategist, who will also be entering the White House come Jan. 20.
There were a series of speakers that night, emceed by onetime Democrat strategist Paul Begala, another self-described laugh riot. And there on tape -- and presented here for loyal Ticket readers -- is another side to Obama who, if he didn't exactly write his own bitingly humorous remarks, at least delivered them expertly.
Now, for instance, we know where he learned about using that middle finger. So laugh along with the man who would be king before most of us realized that.
Amazing what can happen in just three years' time.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Hat Tip to MediaBistro.com
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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Rahm Emanuel, a thief and a crook. This man was at the head of Freddie Mac when it was looting American checkbooks.
His selection gives sad insight into the "Unchanging" world of Washington Politics
Posted by: East Coaster | November 18, 2008 at 01:36 AM