Chances are risks.

Giving someone a chance means you open yourself up for hurt and betrayal. When someone asks to give someon a chance, that someone has usually already betrayed their character and someone is trying to sell you on their reformation.

I know a guy who married someone who everyone else could see hated him and was a full on mega-exploiter. He pleaded with his friends who uniformly warned him to "give her a chance" when they already saw her character in spades in the way she treated him and talked bad about him behind his back. The marriage ended after years and years of endless abuse and suffering. The guy apologized to those friends who stuck by him, even after his wife alienated most of them, and he learned a valuable lesson about giving someone a chance.

Obama's choice of Emanuel is already a betrayal - not of conservatives - who suspected his nature, but of all the liberals and followers who believed the tripe about change. No nice guy...even remotely nice guy... would have anything to do with the known sleaze of Emanuel - the guy who was in charge of Freddie Mac during the scandal and who is clearly evilly unhinged:

he once mailed a rotting fish to a former co-worker after the two parted ways, and following the 1996 election, he rattled off Clinton's betrayers at a celebratory dinner, plunging a steak knife into the table and shouting "Dead" after every name.

That's change alright - the nightmare variety.

Sorry. I'm now prepared for the absolute worst. I'm not letting this guy trample all over any "chances". That way, I can only be pleasantly surprised when he makes only slightly evil moves rather than major evil ones - like first thing hiring the unhinged guy who is largely responsible for the economic mess of the nation.

I know your heart is in the right place Robert, but so was the guy who pleaded for his abusive wife.