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Rahm Emanuel’s Plan for a Democratic Comeback in 2026The politician discusses what lessons he thinks Democrats have forgotten.

Our last episode was with Faiz Shakir, Bernie Sanders’s former campaign manager. And it was about the question of whether Bernieism was a way forward for the Democratic Party. But I said at the beginning that I was going to make that a pairing, that we’re going to have two very different perspectives on what Democrats should do next.

So here is the other. And it is, as I promised, very different. Rahm Emanuel is America’s ambassador to Japan. Before that, he was mayor of Chicago, but it’s what he did before that that interests me. Emanuel was Barack Obama’s chief of staff in the first two years of Obama’s first term. This was when Obama passed the stimulus bill, the Affordable Care Act, the Dodd-Frank financial reforms.

Archived clip of Barack Obama: It’s fair to say that we could not have accomplished what we’ve accomplished without Rahm’s leadership.

Archived clip of Rahm Emanuel: You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that, it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.

And before that, Emanuel led the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2006. This was the midterm elections following George W. Bush’s re-election in 2004. And Emanuel masterminded the campaign that won the House back for Democrats for the first time in 12 years.

Archived clip of Katie Couric: Americans voted for a change in the last election, and today we got it. The new 110th Congress convened with the Democrats in charge of both houses for the first time in 12 years. And for the first time ever, a woman is speaker of the House.

Archived clip of Rahm Emanuel: From every corner of the country, the American people have sent a resounding and unmistakable message of change and new direction for America.

And before that, Emanuel was one of Bill Clinton’s top advisers and top fund-raisers.

Archived clip of Rahm Emanuel: There’s an old saying that if you want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. The American people were hungry for leadership. And I’m proud that in providing that leadership, President Clinton broke a few eggs.

Here’s what you cannot take away from him: He has been at the center of most of the biggest Democratic victories, both electoral and legislative, since the ’90s. The people who love him in the party — and there are many — they say: What this guy knows is how to win. And having lost in 2024, Democrats want to win.

And so Emanuel’s name is popping up a lot. David Axelrod, Obama’s former chief strategist, said that Emanuel should be the next Democratic National Committee chair. Steve Israel, a former top House Democrat, he said the same. Emanuel and his allies are clearly pushing him back into the frame. There’s a campaign going on right now.

But there are a lot of detractors too. Emanuel is a very controversial figure in the party. There are large factions that see the Clinton and Obama eras as good for Bill Clinton and Barack Obama but not that good for Democrats down ballot. And Emanuel is not from the wing of the party that believes the American public is waiting for democratic socialism.

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