If Rahm is Gone, What Does It Mean?

Cenk Uygur looks at Dana Millbank's recent big wet kiss to Rahm Emanuel, and concludes that Rahm Emanuel is on his way out:

My second thought was, "Wow, what a hatchet job on Jarrett, Gibbs and Axelrod!" Since Rahm is obviously feeding this to Milbank, that is very revealing. You don't throw these kinds of bombs unless you've already lost. This is an act of desperation. It's bound to make mortal enemies of these people inside Obama's inner circle. You can't really work with these people anymore. That means you're already finished there.

This is basically Rahm saying on his way out, I was right all along and these guys were wrong. ………

I hope that he is right, but Taylor Marsh sees a bigger picture, and it is scary:

But what if the problem isn’t Rahm?

It’s the question most Democrats can’t, won’t or refuse to face, because they can’t do anything about the answer. Because if they pretend it’s all about Rahm, hoping for his ouster, at least Democrats might get a re-set. With Gibby, Axe, Val and now even Dave still around, it’s better than nothing."

Rahm Emanuel has some less than savory, and I think downright destructive characteristics, but Barack Obama is not simply some passive actor here; The problems here are clearly Barack Obama's responsibility, his desk is where the buck stops, but it's also likely that it's his fault, and that his missteps on healthcare, stimulus, DADT, Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.

The question is whether these are mistakes, or an artifact of who Barack Obama is.

I fear that this is the latter, because mistakes can be fixed, but if the attempts to make nice and split the difference is at Obama's core, then we are screwed.