"BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR"

10/2/08

Not to detract from, indeed, perhaps expanding on, the points I made in the next (or last, depending on how one looks at it) post, the instantly seminal “C’MON; I NEVER THOUGHT HE’D LAST THAT LONG AGAINST CLAY!”…

Perhaps, instead of spelling Mayor Daley’s demise, as several ill-informed “pundits” and ordinary citizens have opined, the abject failure of Chicago’s 2016 Olympic bid may actually have given the Mayor a new lease on political life. Why? If Chicago 2016 had succeeded and it had turned into the financial and logistical nightmare that I, and several other clearly thinking people, expected, the repercussions for the Mayor would have been disastrous. Cost overruns, kinky contracts, outright silliness, prying national media, and “Whoops! We never saw that one comin’” surprises that naturally need the expensive help of a politically connected contractor, at great expense to the taxpayers (and not only Chicago taxpayers), would become as regular a feature of the Chicago landscape as the Picasso and the Sears (that’s right, the Sears) Tower. And all this would develop quickly; the guys who would be making money on the Olympics don’t like to wait. The citizenry, no longer mollified by the cheerleading media and the sycophantic civic community, would rise up and demand Rich Daley’s head on a stake. Under the circumstances wrought by this Olympian disaster, one could beat somebody with nobody. Remember Mayor Byrne? Sadly, I do, too.

There have long been at least two sides to enigmatic Rich Daley: the good government side and the thuggish, reward my friends and screw my enemies side. While the failure of the Olympics has doubtless disappointed those who have benefited from the latter, especially since Daley made it look like such a sure thing (See again today’s other post, “C’MON; I NEVER THOUGHT HE’D LAST THAT LONG AGAINST CLAY!”), not getting the Olympics may help Daley’s increasingly dormant good government side re-emerge, and thus re-endear him to the people of the city of Chicago. Okay, maybe not. But the Olympics surely would have driven the final stake in the heart of Good Government Rich, forcing the peasants to go after Thuggish Rich with proverbial pitchforks. And, remember, when the Wolfman died, Larry Talbot died with him.