Obama’s chief of staff expected to run for mayor of Chicago
U.S. President Barack Obama has lost his right-hand man, Rahm Emanuel, who’s leaving the White House and is expected to run for mayor of Chicago. Obama described his chief of staff’s departure from Washington as a “bittersweet” moment, saying it was “the least suspenseful announcement of all time.” (Emanuel has long been rumoured to have interest in the mayor’s job.) In a tearful tribute to Obama, Emanuel credited the president with having “the guts to make the tough calls that stopped the freefall and saved our country from a second Great Depression.” “Mr. President, I thought I was tough,” added the notoriously short-tempered Emanuel. “I want to thank you for being the toughest leader any country could ask for in the toughest times any president has ever faced.” Emanuel will be replaced a Washington insider Pete Rouse, whom Obama described as a “skillful problem solver, and the good news for him is that we have plenty of problems to solve.”