Emanuel Rahm has been a bull in a china shop since taking office a few short months ago. He basically demanded that school hours be extended 1 ½ hours, and slashed raises for the teachers. There’s also reports of planning to close a hundred or more schools.
All that has triggered the nations first major teacher walk out in several decades. This report says 350,000 kids are out of school right now.
All of this is playing out in Obama’s backyard. Rahm was his number one guy. He even gave up his House seat for Obama. He was O’s chief of staff.
If this doesn’t go away quick will it impact the election?
I’m not seeing it (let’s be honest, this is wishful thinking). If Emanuel screwed up, his constituents will blame him. Obama’s going to be judged by the national situation and his own record, not by what his ex-chief of staff does in Chicago. I can imagine it being awkward it Obama is asked to comment on it, but I assume he wouldn’t get very specific.
Thanks for fixing the thread Marley. Emanuel is normally a first name. I went to school with a kid named Emanuel. I always get Rahm’s backward name screwed up.
Personally, I’d love it if there was some massive wave of sympathy for teachers’ unions, but I don’t see that happening. Aside from local residents who might have more complex views (and Illinois is pretty far from a swing state), people are probably going to make up their minds based on how they feel about public sector unions. And those don’t really poll so well. Really, do you think those of us who wholeheartedly support labor are going to vote for Mitt Romney because Rahm Emmanuel is just as much of a prick as everybody has always said he was?
CNN did a nice Q&A on the strike. Short and quick.
It may not rub off on Obama. We’ll have to see how it plays out. If the strike is resolved quickly then it shouldn’t impact the election at all.
Oddly enough, Romney seems to be taking Rahm’s side and blaming the union. Maybe he forgot Rahm is a Democrat? But, I know Republican’s have always been against the unions.
The day the strike started, the local news was full of the tidbit that Obama supported the teachers union, and that this was noteworthy because it was possible to construe that as a break with Rahm. It was also pointed out that Romney seemed to be taking Rahm’s side, and, yes, the irony that the Republican candidate was apparently “anti-union”. It’s not been mentioned much since.
However, I think either way, it won’t matter much…the teachers have apparently overplayed their hand a bit. Where last week the media reports were full of soundbites of supportive parents, this week they’re full of parents counter-protesting the strike. Whether that’s an actual shift in parental support, or if the media decided it’s time to ratchet up the drama quotient and write a new chapter in the narrative, I can’t tell. But it’s no longer clear that Rahm is going to be The Bad Guy by the time this is all over.
And, come on. This is Chicago. Obama *lives *here. We haven’t gone Republican in 24 years, and we’re not gonna start by voting against one of our own residents who gets 99% of the vote in some districts. The only possible way it will happen is if we all get so apathetic that we don’t show up, figuring it’s a sure thing.
But, I know Republican’s have always been against the unions.