“I’M SMART, MIKEY, SMART…NOT LIKE EVERYBODY SAYS…”

4/20/10

An e-mail from one of my college buddies prompted me to do something I wanted to do but hadn’t yet gotten around to doing; i.e., commenting on Rahm Emanuel’s stated desire to run for mayor of Chicago:


I think Rahm is serious. I've posted a couple blog entries on this point in the past. (See my 12/23/09 (“I CAN TELL BY THE WAY YOU DRESS THAT YOU ARE A REAL COWBOY”) and 12/13/08 (“I TRUST THESE MEN WITH MY LIFE, SENATOR. TO ASK THEM TO LEAVE NOW WOULD BE AN INSULT.”) posts.) Emanuel, in my opinion, has something of a complex. He has this image in Washington as some kind of tough guy because he throws around a little profanity and the self-styled hard guys in our nation’s capital fold like cheap card tables, but back home, in the city of the dealmakers, he gets coffee for the guys who really matter. This has to drive him crazy, so he has to prove to himself, and to anyone who cares, that he can be a tough guy when dealing with people of more substance than the current crop of lilliputians that comprise current day Washington. Hence his quest for Mayor.

Emanuel's chances of attaining this quest are slim. While I am not in the business of making political predictions, let me say that, unless Maggie’s condition deteriorates further, Rich Daley will run again and be resoundingly reelected. After that term, he may retire, but I suspect not; like his father, he will probably die in office. And even if this turns out not to be the case, let me throw out a few names of people who are more likely to become mayor than is Rahm Emmanuel:

Alderman George Cardenas of the 12th Ward
Sheriff Tom Dart
State Senator James Meeks

But who would have predicted Jane Byrne, even late in 1978 or early in 1979? So predictions about politics, and especially about local politics, are essentially worthless...but fun.