This post is for serious election nerds only. (You know you’re obsessed with the elections, when you not only read an obscure news story but also feel compelled to write about it)
I just read this story by the AP. An anonymous source close to the Obama camp leaked a story to the AP reporters: Apparently, Obama might offer the chief of staff job to Rahm Emanuel, the Democratic congressman from Chicago.
The discipline of the Obama campaign is legendary, so when there’s a media leak from the Obama camp, it means the campaign wants the story to go out. Why would they want Emanuel’s name even more closely associated with Obama?
Because Rahm Emanuel’s no ordinary congressman. He’s the son of Benjamin M. Emanuel, an Israeli born, prior member of a Zionist paramilitary organization.
How’s that for some Florida conservative-jewish-voter street cred?
Of course, the McCain campaign bought right into Obama’s ploy by releasing this statement: “Reports that Obama wants Emanuel to be White House chief of staff undercut any claims to unity and bipartisanship, and should alarm every voter.”
The McCain campaign should’ve ignored the bait. The older jewish retirees in Florida will be delighted, not alarmed, by these reports. And if McCain attacks Emanuel too strongly, these voters will turn away from McCain, skittish as they already are because of Palin’s inclusion.
And so Florida falls.
Johnny Mac’s been outmaneuvered again.