Rahm Emanual's Speech at Brookings

Thanks to Greg Sargent of TPM the full text of Rahm's speech is available here. It is all that the excerpts promised and then some. In particular I very much approve of what I can best describe as the tone of the speech. We on the left, thanks to our reality based character and love of critical review and the scientific approach, too often come across as not quite being sure of our position until the audience approves. The thing is that is exactly the right attitude when presenting a scientific finding. As a scientist you are looking for everyone else in the field to critically review your work and test it before treating it as a fact. Some measure of uncertainty is expected, even from the researcher himself, until some consensus is reached among other knowledgeable researchers. However, in the political realm one needs to speak more as an attorney would to a jury. In that case, the attorney should already be firmly convinced of his clients case before starting to address the jury and should always treat the conclusions as being already resolved. That legal attitude I get from this speech by Rahm Emanuel. I am very glad to see it.