By The Beachwood 100 Days Affairs Desk
See first: Reading Rahm: Master Media Manipulator.
*
“One hundred days is a measurement normally associated with U.S. presidents – not Chicago mayors. But then, Emanuel – who will hit the 100-day mark on Tuesday – is not your run-of-the-mill mayor,” Fran Spielman writes for the Sun-Times.
“He’s a Washington tornado storming through his hometown – in the first chief executive’s position he has held – trying to tackle the city’s intractable problems with the sheer force of his personality, energy and formidable contacts.”
*
“It is rumoured that he never sleeps,” The Economist writes. “In fact Rahm Emanuel wakes up around 5am to run, swim and workout before arriving at City Hall ahead of almost everyone else. All anyone talks about is his energy. The mayor of Chicago marks his 100th day in office on August 22nd, and has already put his stamp on the city with a flood of initiatives.
“Mr Emanuel began by assembling a team of professional advisers and administrators – a stark contrast to the patronage of previous regimes. He set the tone by cutting $75m from the city’s bloated budget on his first day in office. [EDITOR’S NOTE: Not true. See the item Symbolic Promise Symbolically Fulfilled.] At his first city council meeting, he cut even more.”
*
“Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy, who will mark his 100th day in the job Tuesday, firmly believes the city is safer since he took office,” Frank Main “reported” for the Sun-Times.
*
“Emanuel Touts City’s Savings Record For His First 100 Days,” CBS Chicago reports.
*
Better:
“David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel’s old friend and former White House colleague, once disparaged the tradition of benchmarking the first 100 days of a new officeholder’s term as ‘the journalistic equivalent of a Hallmark holiday,'” the Tribune reports.
“It is a tradition, rooted in the fever of action that defined Franklin Roosevelt’s Depression-era debut as president, which has become ever more hackneyed and premature even as it has endured.
“This week Chicago’s new mayor is preparing with gusto to celebrate the accomplishments of his first 100 days on the job, an artificial milestone that is mere prelude to the next 100 days that will be a far more crucial test of Emanuel’s leadership mettle.”
*
Best:
“Rahm Emanuel’s report card so far: There’s room for improvement,” Ben Joravsky reported last month for the Reader. “Grades on budget, economic development, personnel, police, and schools.”
*
“When Rahm Emanuel took the oath of office on May 16, 2011, he wasted little time outlining an ambitious new agenda for the nation’s third largest city – and set a 100-day benchmark for many new policy and programmatic initiatives. WBEZ is covering the Emanuel administration’s first 100 days through a series of stories, reports, interviews and conversations. They chronicle the early days of the first new mayoral administration in 22 years – and assess the progress toward key goals.”
*
Rahm’s “memo” to Chicago taxpayers.
*
David Greising of the Chicago News Cooperative on Chicago Tonight: Week in Review last Friday: “I feel like I’m getting Rahm fatigue.”
–
Comments welcome.
Posted on August 22, 2011