The [Monday] Papers

Let's start with mayoral candidates trying to persuade you they are normal, likable people, which I can assure you they are not.

1. Susana Mendoza.

Home. And it's homework time BEFORE Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/pRgvFOGJ7R

— Susana A. Mendoza (@susanamendoza10) February 4, 2019

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2. Bill Daley.

Who are you rooting for in tonight's Super Bowl?

— Bill Daley (@DaleyForMayor) February 3, 2019

As I replied on Twitter, "Name one Ram."

Also, as of 10:20 a.m. Monday, there were six hours left in the poll and only 57 votes cast, so FAIL.

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3. Lori Lightfoot.

Ready for the big game! Do you think we have enough food? #SuperBowl #SBLIII pic.twitter.com/4IWxxsIK04

— Lori Lightfoot (@LightfootForChi) February 4, 2019

I mean, Lightfoot isn't unlikable as far as I know, but I consider this a strike against her campaign. It doesn't even really look that good, sorry.

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I find this aspect of pols' social media feeds - look, Elizabeth Warren is drinking a beer introducing her dog! - wholly distasteful. It's just so obviously disingenuous in their attempts to create curated cults of personality. Bruce Rauner was a master at this - all those motorcycle vests and cowboy shirts as he visited downstate diners and high school basketball games. He never showed you the luxury of his real life inside one of his nine palatial homes. I know that's an obvious observation, but nobody seems to be saying it. I'm saying it now: Make it stop!

Similarly, suddenly these candidates care about my safety! Gery Chico never warned me to be careful in bad weather before, but now that he wants my vote . . . Also, you are not my mom or dad. Do people really need reminding from a mayor or governor that it's cold out and you should bundle up, much less a mere candidate?

This stuff is also so untrue to these people's real personalities. Rahm in a sweater earnestly teaching a civics class? Please. Show me an Instagram feed of him berating a staffer and then maybe you've got something.

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Meanwhile, Ed Burke is also now active on social media trying to be human and failing badly.

pic.twitter.com/uCLcOKj8Ol

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 4, 2019

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Now let's talk churches. Whenever a Republican candidate appears at a place like Liberty University, the media notes the noxious views of the church leaders therein. But in Chicago pols get a pass from their church visits - and believe me, some of those places are as bizarre and unyielding in their dogma than the worst Trump-loving evangelicals. So . . .

1. Susana Mendoza.

Just fyi, this church believes the Bible is the infallible word of God, so ... that's a lot of nasty stuff. https://t.co/uKPSjZxKsA

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 3, 2019

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2. Lori Lightfoot.

"Set aside time for this PROPHETIC ENCOUNTER. Be my SPECIAL GUEST and receive the WORD from the LORD." https://t.co/IlvOXpolbI

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 4, 2019

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Now, to the day's news from the campaign trail . . .

1. Amara Enyia.

I was just telling my roommate Tim over the weekend that I had been meaning to make a post about Enyia's bullshit - including her brief time as University Park village manager - but I'd been overwhelmed by other events and, yes, I was procrastinating as well. I worried to Tim that I'd get "beat" on the story, but hey, nobody's paying me for this!

Well, the Trib beat me this morning. Here's a thread - read their piece too.

Glad the Trib did this - I've been telling people about a lot of this stuff for awhile now. This is the difference between reporting and writing bullshit political essays like the Politico piece on her and Chance over the weekend. https://t.co/xL9QLUMZPW

— Beachwood Reporter (@BeachwoodReport) February 4, 2019

And to those Amara supporters accusing me of being a racist tool of the Machine, you're acting just like Trumpers so caught up in a cult of personality by someone whose rhetoric pleases you that no critique is allowed, much less a consideration of actual facts that could shake your dug-in worldview.

2. Gery Chico.

Speaking of Trump, here's a candidate using the kind of normalized deception deemed acceptable by a vast swath of the political-media complex because it's "clever" or something. But is it better or worse than Trump's outright outrageous lies?

And the thing is this: I know Chico is smarter than this. It's pure cynical politics-as-usual.

.@GeryChico's claim follows a well-worn partisan script in which a candidate blows out of proportion a minor piece of the legislation an opponent (in this case @susanamendoza10) once supported. My latest for @PolitiFactIL: https://t.co/5l5qUF9VHJ

— Kiannah Sepeda-Miller (@kiannahsepeda) February 4, 2019

I've had some nits to pick with some of the BGA's fact-checks this campaign season, but this one strikes me as on-point. Also, please note that Rich Miller got to the "soda tax" part of this first.

3. Garry McCarthy.

The central claim to his whole campaign is a lie.

But I found this statement by Politifact to be a problem:

"It's also worth noting that a Chicago magazine investigation raised questions about whether data manipulation drove down official murder statistics in 2013 and 2014 on McCarthy's watch."

Why? Because me and the Chicago Justice Project's Tracy Siska have debunked that report many times.

No one would like to believe it more than me, but sometimes the facts accrue to the accused, and in this case Chicago's writers got it wrong, almost certainly because it set out to fulfill a narrative - to prove a pre-determined thesis - and seem to have lacked the background and experience necessary to understand what they were looking at.

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The Beachwood McRibTipLine: Super tippy.

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