Speaking at Northwestern University on Friday, Emanuel said, “And I think the president’s experience as somebody who was a community organizer on the South Side, dealing with the steel workers who had lost their jobs and lost any possibility of having a job in their industry mid-life, how they were going to retrain, how they were going to get themselves back on their feet and how they were going to value themselves, was a guiding principle for him.”

He continued, “And I think that’s essential because, in the Oval Office, at the end of the day, all you have are your values, your judgment, and your ability to see a clear road where everybody just sees fog.” …

“If you haven’t seen the movie ‘Lincoln,’ and if I didn’t try to illuminate it, please go see the movie ‘Lincoln’ because that’s another way where all these cross currents come at you and you have to make sense of that conflict, and that conflicting currents and equities,” he said.