Rahm Emanuel spent nearly a week in the summer of 2009 aggressively trying to talk Obama out of moving forward with an ambitious version of health care reform, and by his own admission “begged” him not to do it, a book out next week reports.
The book, Jonathan Alter’s The Promise, goes much further than previous accounts in documenting just how opposed Rahm was to proceeding with ambitious reform — something that was widely suspected at the time but never proven in detail. Excerpts of the book were made available in advance of its release next Tuesday.
“I begged him not to do this,” Rahm admits to Alter. But according to the book, Obama overrode Rahm’s advice, privately taking a bit of shot at Clinton by telling advisers that he hadn’t been sent to the White House to do “school uniforms.”
Full story: The Plum Line – Book: Rahm “begged” Obama for days not to pursue ambitious health reform