Jeff Greenfield Settles for Talking About Politics Instead of Music

Imus determined that Jeff Greenfield would win the five favorite songs contest WABC Radio is currently holding, were he eligible to compete. Since he’s not, Greenfield, a political correspondent for CBS News, will instead address rumors that White House Chief-of-Staff Rahm Emanuel will depart his post before week’s end.

Though Greenfield has never taken much interest in White House staff shakeup stories (“I think they take our eye off the main issues”), he believes it’s important for President Obama and his administration to figure out how they’ll make the next two years different from the previous two.

“If they have sharply diminished power in Congress—and they could barely get their program through with 60 votes in the Senate—what are the next two years going to look like?” Greenfield said.

Imus highlighted the possibility that Emanuel, known for his strong personality, likely influenced Obama’s demeanor and his message, which Greenfield sort of acknowledged.

“The whole point of him being there is that he, in a very short time, had risen to a leadership level in the House of Representatives among Democrats, after having served in the Clinton White House,” Greenfield said of Emanuel, who will probably run for Mayor of Chicago. The sagging economy, he believes, made it difficult for Emanuel to sway Congress as strongly as he would have under more stable circumstances. 

Also in need of stabilization: Obama’s image, which, in light of the projected losses his party will suffer in November, is undergoing a mini-makeover. Instead of holding rallies in arenas that he might not be able to fill, the President is instead meeting with voters in small, backyard summits.

Surveys have shown that likely voters are much more enthusiastic about Republicans this year than Democrats, which Greenfield said Obama is trying to counter by also speaking at college campuses like the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he is today.

“Their hope is that if they can change the population of who votes…they have a chance to minimize the damage in November,” Greenfield said, noting that younger voters, like those on college campuses, tend to vote Democratic.

It’s a similar demographic to the crowd expected to attend a joint rally in Washington, DC on October 30th being held by comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert and dubbed, “The Rally to Restore Sanity.”

While Greenfield expects the crowd to be big, he likened it to “the fall version of spring break,” and observed that the brand of satirical humor purveyed by Stewart and Colbert is not always appreciated in Washington.

“They don’t think it’s funny when it’s about them,” said Imus, who knows from whence he speaks.

-Julie Kanfer