The Hill News

The likely departure of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel provides President Obama with an opportunity to "turn the page," as he has been talking so much about lately. With the state of his current poll numbers and the start of his reelection campaign just months away, he better turn it.

Emanuel was clearly left on the outside of a close-knit, Chicago group led by David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett. From every report of the decisionmaking inside the Obama administration it is evident that Emanuel â€" no matter how tight he is with the president â€" did not have the same influence over Obama as others did. For Emanuel, who wanted a slower, more incremental approach on healthcare reform, to pursue climate change legislation later on instead of early summer of 2009 and to include more infrastructure in the original stimulus package, being politically savvy didn't mean winning the day.

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