Miller/NewsFormer Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is running for mayor of Chicago, and may have presidential aspirations down the road.

Egan-Chin/NewsWhether they admit it or not, Mayor Bloomberg and Sarah Palin (below) have eyes for the White House.

Reinke/AP

CHICAGO - This time it was Rahm Emanuel in Chicago, making the speech that he hopes is the start of everything for him. This time it was Emanuel, a White House insider turned into a political outsider this fast, standing in the Coonley Elementary School, talking about a vision for the future for his city and really talking about himself.

"The question in this election is who has the experience, imagination and strength to see a better future," he said.

He is the tough guy from the Obama administration who now wants to be mayor of Chicago, then see where he can go from there. But you know he sees Chicago as just the beginning of something grander for him. This is American politics now, in the age of Barack Obama. The Obama who came from Chicago and really nowhere to become President.

They all think they can make it happen fast, as fast as the country turned around on Obama. The smart guys, and there is nobody around smarter than Emanuel, understand this has become Attention-Deficit America now, our society flattening out faster than it ever has in history, voters unable to distinguish between message and messengers in the age of Twitter and the Internet and the demagoguery, left and right, of cable TV.

You think Rahm Emanuel doesn't think he can be President someday? Think again. You think Michael Bloomberg doesn't see a way to the White House for him in 2012 with the country this dizzy? Think again.

Bloomberg never wanted a third term because he thought the city needed him to save it from financial doom. He needed to keep himself in play. He needed to buy himself time, which means one more thing Bloomberg has bought, starting with influence. Mostly he needed a little more time to figure out if he can make his run before he is too old.

Suddenly nothing is impossible in American politics. All over the country there are on-the-make Republicans assessing their chance to make their run at Obama in 2012, from young congressmen like Eric Cantor from Virginia to Mitch Daniels, the governor of Indiana, to a talking hairdo like Rick Perry in Texas. Chris Christie of Jersey, one of the most interesting guys around even though he looks like Gov. Ralph Kramden, keeps saying he isn't going to make his own run. We'll see about that.

There has rarely been a time more fluid than this, the politics of change in 2008 producing more change in 2010, even though all this change never seems to help voters, especially the ones from the middle class.

But they all see you can come from nowhere the way Sarah Palin, drum majorette for the Tea Party, has. Get big fast. Kirsten Gillibrand looked like some cute lightweight from upstate when David Paterson named her to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. Now you better watch Gillibrand, whether you think she has anything to say or not. She is young and good-looking and a moderate Democrat and before long, you will start to hear about her making her own run, whatever she says about that.

Two years ago, in the middle of the most thrilling race for the Democratic nomination the country had ever seen, Hillary Clinton was the most famous woman in the world. Now she is secretary of state and still Wife of Bill, and Palin, with the substance of a Hallmark card, has gone past her so fast it is as if Clinton has fossilized in front of our eyes.

You don't think things change fast? Suddenly George W. Bush is viewed as more of a statesman than Winston Churchill. And for what? Telling us he couldn't send troops into New Orleans after Katrina because it would have made the governor of Louisiana mad? Go back to Texas.

Nothing that happened with Bush is his fault. He sounds like the cowboy version of Isiah Thomas. But less than two years from when he officially left office, with approval ratings you could fit inside a shot glass, you get the idea that he could run against Obama's record - the way Obama ran against his record - and win.

Not long ago, somebody challenged Obama about his reliance on rhetoric over substance and he said, "Speeches got me here." They did. But as a Chicago political guy I know said Sunday, "Name one speech he's given as President that compares with what he did as a candidate."

This weekend Rahm Emanuel, one of Obama's inside guys, is the one who gave a speech in Chicago. Only it wasn't about Chicago. It was about him. A little guy thinking as big as you can, the way the mayor of New York does these days. The way they all do.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2010/11/15/2010-11-15_quick_change_rahm_just_latest_political_little_guy_who_thinks_big.html#ixzz15Mlajw7v