Biden to nominate Rahm Emanuel to serve as ambassador to Japan
Source: Washington Post
President Biden will nominate former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as ambassador to Japan, and R. Nicholas Burns to serve as ambassador to China, the White House announced Friday.
Emanuel previously worked as White House chief of staff in the Obama administration and served in the House of Representatives from 2003 to 2009. Bidens decision to tap Emanuel for one of the top diplomatic posts has been widely reported despite strong pushback from liberal Democrats who criticized his tenure as Chicago mayor, specifically how he handled the shooting death of Laquan McDonald, a Black teenager, by a White police officer
Burns is a professor at Harvard University. He has served as ambassador to NATO and to Greece, and worked at the State Department as undersecretary of state for political affairs.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/20/biden-nominate-rahm-emanuel-serve-ambassador-japan/
Wanted to add my 2 cents but Tokyo is ~6,300 miles from Chicago so it seems like a "move him far far away" decision.
Aristus
(66,388 posts)Not the most well-mannered guy on the planet...
helpisontheway
(5,008 posts)marble falls
(57,112 posts)... but Barack is a much better man than I!
PatSeg
(47,503 posts)especially for a diplomatic position.
cinematicdiversions
(1,969 posts)He would do better in a country that is more appreciative of his lack of decorum.
PatSeg
(47,503 posts)I have to wonder why he was chosen especially for Japan.
getagrip_already
(14,764 posts)reality1
(123 posts)Rabrrrrrr
(58,349 posts)but he's been quite a jackass this century.
zuul
(14,627 posts)The Mouth
(3,150 posts)To deserve this?
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,350 posts)Mrsfiddlegirl
(16 posts)Rahm has always been a hack. Must have needed a job...the Chicago way.🤢
rsdsharp
(9,186 posts)By definition that requires diplomacy. He aint got any.
Rebl2
(13,523 posts)Withywindle
(9,988 posts)We might be at war with Japan in just a few months.
madaboutharry
(40,212 posts)Gidney N Cloyd
(19,841 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)it's even further from Washington DC.
hamsterjill
(15,222 posts)Rahm had his hay day, and in my old lady opinion, it's time for some new blood.
Let him write his memoirs rather than continue on the government payroll.
live love laugh
(13,118 posts)onetexan
(13,043 posts)I like him but he rubs alot of ppl wrong way. I think he's very talented & despite his acerbic demeanor he is a good man & a shrewd politician & operative.
Sneederbunk
(14,291 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,118 posts)The Mouth
(3,150 posts)than outside the tent pissing in"
As LBJ said about J. Edgar Hoover
McKim
(2,412 posts)This is one way to get rid of him and out of Biden's hair in Washington DC. Hope he learns enough manners to represent us in etiquette conscious Japan. At least he is no longer hurting the public school families of Chicago!
The Mouth
(3,150 posts)but sometimes it's hard.
mahatmakanejeeves
(57,503 posts)Evolve Dammit
(16,743 posts)SouthBayDem
(32,034 posts)Walter Mondale and Tom Foley were the ambassadors under Clinton. Howard Baker was GW Bush's first ambassador nearly 15 years after retiring from the Senate. Caroline Kennedy was the second ambassador under Obama.
Lulu KC
(2,567 posts)betsuni
(25,544 posts)He's famous enough. I have a different opinion from everyone else. I think his tough personality (and he can be funny and charming) will be fine in Japan (he's a man).
murielm99
(30,745 posts)The groupthink in this thread is amusing.
betsuni
(25,544 posts)murielm99
(30,745 posts)Most of our Democrats are scrappers. Obama understood that.
area51
(11,911 posts)a guy who called liberals "fucking stupid".
3catwoman3
(24,007 posts)I am putting it "diplomatically."
When I was stationed there for 2 years while in the Air Force nurse corps, I remember many Americans having some difficulty with the unfailing politeness of the Japanese. One enlisted guy went so far as to say, "I'd rather have someone tell me to fuck off if that's how they feel." I remember thinking, "Gee, I wouldn't."
dalton99a
(81,516 posts)artemisia1
(756 posts)Lord Ludd
(585 posts)as long as you don't give him a job in DC.
ShazzieB
(16,426 posts)Q. What do you call Rahm Emanuel 6,300 miles away from Chicago?
A. A good start.
(Adapted from an old joke about lawyers on the bottom of the ocean.)
BlueMTexpat
(15,370 posts)decision!
He is the most tactless a**hole of a**holes! He should be nowhere near a diplomatic post.
WhiskeyGrinder
(22,357 posts)mahatmakanejeeves
(57,503 posts)Link to tweet
BumRushDaShow
(129,118 posts)have just been hilarious.