Time Mag's Fizzy Light Interview with Emanuel Slips In a Leftist Critique

Time magazine offered its "Ten Questions" interview to Chicago Mayor (and former Obama chief of staff) Rahm Emanuel, but Time's Belinda Luscombe largely stuck to light, airy questions like when the mayor talked of getting ideas on his swim, she asked, "Are you a Speedo or board-shorts kind of guy?" She also asked if he gets more sleep now, which kid was the favorite in his house growing up, and "Do you miss Oprah?"

Somehow, there wasn't space in Time for questions about Obama scandals like Solyndra or Fast and Furious, and when it briefly turned serious about national policy, Time pestered from the left about how Emanuel wasted that economic crisis he talked about:

TIME: A new book [assume Ron Suskind] says the Obama Administration has done that thing you said you should never do, which is to let the economic crisis go to waste ...

EMANUEL: First of all, remember what my quote is: "Never allow a good crisis to go to waste—because it's the opportunity to do the big things you've avoided ..."

TIME: ... like reforming Wall Street?

EMANUEL: Now wait a second. Let's go through it. The stress tests forced the banks to finally raise their private capital. That was seizing the moment of that crisis to fix something. Now, there's a lot of warts in it. Turn the page. Look at Europe today. They had a financial problem two years ago. They put it under the rug, and now we are all dealing with that.

From there, Luscombe returned to "Do you miss Oprah?" Typically, Time is basically awarding Emanuel a page of the magazine while they organize a joint liberal intellectual venture. Earlier, Time revealed their "Ideas Week" plan while Emanuel sells himself as Chicago's centrist sage:

EMANUEL: We've got to put more police on the street, get kids and guns and drugs off the street, so there's a level of public safety. I've got to strengthen not only K through 12 but our community colleges so we have a trained and educated workforce. We're the first school system that has top-to-bottom—from corporate suite down to the classroom—performance pay. Principals now have performance pay.

TIME: Law and order, performance pay for teachers—are you sure you're a Democrat?

EMANUEL: I'll take any idea—left, center or right—as long as we're moving forward, not sideways or backward.

TIME: In fact, one of your initiatives is to start a Chicago Ideas Week (TIME is a co-partner) with Brad Keywell from Groupon. Where do you get your ideas?

That led to the swimsuit question.