The laws of political journalism dictate that any profile of Rahm Emanuel—who is all but declaring a 2028 presidential run—must crackle with Rahm Anecdotes that capture the propulsive, relentless behavior of a man who’s slugged his way through the political Thunderdome for four decades.

For example: the dead fish he sent to a Democratic pollster he blamed for misjudging a House race, accompanied by a note that read: “It’s been awful working with you. Love, Rahm.” Or the celebratory dinner in Little Rock, Arkansas, after Bill Clinton’s 1992 victory, when Emanuel repeatedly stabbed the table with a steak knife as he named those who’d betrayed the campaign and decreed them, one after the other, “Dead! Dead! Dead!” Or the nameplate on his desk in the White House, when he was Barack Obama’s fi

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