Rahm in ’28? Meh.

I’m glad to see early talk among Democrats of nominating a moderate for president in 2028. I’m just not sure I like Rahm Emanuel for the job.

In a recent piece in the Wall Street Journal, Emanuel talks more or less openly about his ambitions in that regard. I like a lot of what he has to say. He calls the party’s image “toxic” and “weak and woke.” And he says, “If you want the country to give you the keys to the car, somebody’s got to be articulating an agenda that’s fighting for America, not just fighting Trump. The American dream has become unaffordable. It’s inaccessible. And that has to be unacceptable to us.”

He captures the right balance on the transgender stuff when he says, “I’m empathetic and sympathetic to a child trying to figure out their pronoun, but it doesn’t trump the fact that the rest of the class doesn’t know what a pronoun is.”

But then he adds this: “The public’s not wrong. They figured it out. The system’s rigged. It’s corrupt.”

That last statement may doom his ambitions. Because when people think of a corrupt system they might think that working as a senior official in Bill Clinton’s administration and then cashing out by making $16 million in banking and then repeating the same trick in the same industry, this time for a $12 million payoff, after his stint as Barack Obama’s chief of staff qualifies.

Emanuel is saying the right things, but he has walked through more golden revolving doors than crypto bros at Mar a lago.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Trump demonstrates that right now Americans want a strongman (Emanuel likes to talk tough) and they think anybody who doesn’t cash out every time they can is just a sucker.

But for me, Emanuel doesn’t have the temperament I’m looking for in a president and he’s the embodiment of the insider game I detest in both parties.

My initial focus for a moderate candidate will be on Pete Buttigieg, Josh Shapiro and Gretchen Whitmer. Buttigieg is the best political communicator since Bill Clinton while Whitmer and Shapiro win in states where Democrats need to make a comeback in ’28. Gavin Newsom is also a late entry in that lane, but his past record and being governor of California pretty much end his campaign before it begins.

Still, I’m glad to see that the moderate wing is getting crowded with potential candidates. If they sort themselves out and Emanuel comes out on top, I’ll be happy to support him. He just won’t be my horse right out of the gate.