Rahm Emanuel

Barack Obama's first big decision after winning last Tuesday was to designate Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff. That appointment should put to rest any notion that Obama's got some kind of anti-Israeli agenda in mind. Emanuel's also a notoriously pushy asshole, which makes him a perfect bad-cop enforcer to Obama's good-cop. And while his experience in the fledgling Clinton administration doesn't ensure a mistake-free early presidency, it does at least ensure that the Obama administration probably won't repeat the exact same mistakes.