Sources say Obama taps Emanuel for White House

WASHINGTON – Barack Obama’s campaign has approached Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel about possibly serving as White House chief of staff, officials said Thursday as the marathon presidential race entered its final, frenzied stretch with a Democratic tilt.

The disclosure came as Republican John McCain, in need of a comeback, focused on pocketbook issues amid fresh signs of a recession. “Ohio is hurting now, people in Ohio are having trouble staying in their homes, keeping their jobs,” he said as he set out on a two-day bus tour of the state.

“We have got to get this economy out of the ditch.”

Obama also pointed to the government’s report that the economy had declined in the third quarter. He told a large crowd in Florida that McCain has been perched “right next to George Bush” for eight years, and consumers are paying a steep price for their partnership.

The Democrats who described the Obama campaign’s approach to Emanuel spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they were not authorized to be quoted by name. An aide to the congressman, Sarah Feinberg, said in an e-mail that he “has not been contacted to take a job in an administration that does not yet exist. Everyone is focused on Election Day, as they should be.”

Asked about Emanuel after touching down in Colombia, Mo., on Thursday night, Obama said only: “I’m trying to win an election.” Then, referring to campaign manager David Plouffe, he said: “Plouffe is my chief of staff.”

Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton earlier had said: “There’s no news because there’s no job to offer.”

Emanuel is a veteran of President Clinton’s White House, and has made a rapid ascent of the House leadership ladder since his election to Congress. He was chairman of the Democratic campaign committee two years ago when the party won a majority for the first time in more than a decade, and he cemented his reputation as a prodigious fundraiser and strong-willed political strategist.

Both Obama and McCain have authorized their staffs to begin transition operations in recent weeks – although only one of them will be able to make use of the results. As far as is known, no job offers have been made by either man.

Even so, Republicans seized on the disclosure. “Emanuel is among the most vitriolic and partisan people in American politics,” said Alex Conant, a Republican National Committee spokesman. “Reports that Obama wants him to be White House chief of staff undercut any claims to unity and bipartisanship, and should alarm every voter.”

As the race neared an end, opinion polls, early voting statistics and even the candidates’ campaign schedules all make it look like the race is Obama’s to lose.

The Democrat campaigned exclusively in traditionally Republican states during the day, flying from Florida to Virginia to Missouri, in hopes of winning a sizable victory on Tuesday. Polls consistently show him ahead nationally as well as in a half-dozen states that sided with Bush in 2004, and tied in three more.

McCain’s bus tour of Ohio underscored his political predicament. Bush won the state twice, it has voted for the winner in every presidential election for 20 years, and public and private surveys all give Obama the advantage.

Both campaigns invested heavily in turning out early voters.

Officials in North Carolina said roughly 30 percent of all registered voters had already cast ballots – about 1.7 million in all – and the Board of Elections ordered the state’s 100 counties to keep longer voting hours.

Like the opinion polls, the early ballot count favored Obama. Officials in Iowa, Florida, Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada as well as North Carolina said more Democrats than Republicans had cast ballots, in some cases by lopsided margins.

Democrats, increasingly optimistic about regaining the White House, looked forward to padding their majorities in Congress, too, and then tackling the economy and bringing the war in Iraq to an end.