Hey, it's Jen Saki.

So as I was making a list of people who would tell me what they thought without sugar-coding it or holding back, Rama Emanuel was at the top of my list.

I worked for him in 2006 when he was chair

of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and Democrats won back the House. And again,

when he was the first chief of staff in the Obama White House. And politics has definitely changed

since then, but his aggressive and tough approach to calling it like he sees it hasn't changed a bit.

And frankly, maybe the Democrats need a bit more of that as they look to winning again.

Democrats, we love people to know that we're smart and that we got our PhD and here we're ready to show you our thesis.

And it comes across not only that it's a self-enclosed conversation, it is tremendously dismissive

of them, the audience.

We're actually talking to ourselves about how important, how smart we are, rather than how to

make sure that they understand.

We're more interested in the sound of our own voice.

Yep, that's Rahm Emanuel.

Former chief of staff to President Obama, former Chicago mayor, and just

back from his latest post as the ambassador to Japan.

Rama's never been one to shy away from saying exactly what he thinks or shy away from a fight.

And he's definitely got some thoughts.

Welcome. This is The Blueprint with Jen Saki.

It's pretty obvious that that's me.

For this episode, I called a Brahma manual two weeks after the inauguration to talk with him about how you find winning candidates.

Why elected officials shouldn't be so afraid to piss some people off and which rising stars in the party

...