Rahm’s Get Away: The Picture Was Dark from Day One

Doug Mills/The New York Times

With the breaking, but not unexpected news that Rahm is leaving the White House, the choice of this undated photo accompanying the NYT announcement is a telling one.

What’s also interesting to me is how much it parallels this image the NYT ran on the cover of the NYT Magazine fifteen months ago — the same one it ran in a less grainy and blown up form on the very first day of Obama’s term in office upon the announcement of Rahm’s appointment.

Obama and Emanuel are lucky the press — by virtual of the inbred nature inside-the-beltway — is so buying Rahm’s “I always wanted to be mayor” story that he’s avoided larger scrutiny over exiting so early in the game.

Obama and Rahm got nowhere with the bipartisanship strategy using Rahm’s good cop/bad cop approach; his management by ADD has been a terrible match with Obama’s more contemplative style; and (trust the pictures) his overly dark and aggressive personality, as you can see from the first day to the last, wasn’t fooling anybody.

(h/t: NB)