By Steve Rhodes
UPDATE 12:13 PM: From my Facebook feed:
John Kuczaj wishes John McDonough would run for Mayor of Chicago, based on his record of turning around horribly-run organizations.
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UPDATE 11:40 AM: The Mayoral Odds: Live Updates!
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UPDATE 11:29 AM: The Week in WTF is in: Starring Lou Canellis’s suits, Bridget Polaski’s cell phone, Rahm Emanuel’s guile, and Jody Weis’s bulging but impotent muscles.
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UPDATE 11:07 AM: The College Football Report is in: What Has Your New Coach Done For Me Lately? Plus, some week two tips that might be construed as condoning and even encouraging gambling. For entertainment purposes only, of course.
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I’m not sure if there will be a column today, worlds are colliding. Things are touch-and-go. Needless to say, forces are aligning against you. Prepare for battle. The time is nigh.
The [Thursday] Papers
And so it begins. Last night at 6:50 p.m. I received a call on my cell phone from 202-466-1652. It was an automated survey asking my preferences between the following potential mayoral candidates (and in this order):
* Ed Burke
* Bill Daley
* Tom Dart
* Rahm Emanuel
* Bob Fioretti
* Luis Gutierrez
* Jim Houlihan
* Jesse Jackson Jr
* James Meeks
* Terry Peterson
I was instructed to “Press 1 for Ed Burke, Press 2 for Bill Daley” and so on. I pressed 9 for Meeks just so I could go on and see what the rest of the call had in store. (In no way do I support Meeks; somehow I figured he was the most harmless pick in this particular situation.)
I was then asked “for statistical purposes only” about my gender and race.
So there you have it.
UPDATE 10:06 A.M.: This must have been the poll.
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The Mayoral Odds: We’ve got ’em. WATCH FOR UPDATES!
Bleepin’ Golden Panel
I’ll be on this panel about the Blago trial this evening.
Creampuffs and Coach Smirk
In The College Football Report.
Trib Squib
Somehow, on the day after Richard M. Daley announced his 21-year reign as mayor was coming to an end, the Tribune made a poll about whether Illinoisans want Rod Blagojevich retried its big front page story.
Who cares?
You may as well ask how many people think Blagojevich is a Muslim for the same news value.
Normality
It’s so funny to read comments – and to hear and see reporters’ questions – about how chaos might come to a suddenly fragmented Chicago now that Daley’s retirement has unleashed the pent-up ambitions of courage-free pols previously afraid to speak up who might now seek the city’s highest office.
Chaos? In other cities it’s called life-as-usual. You know, an election is coming up, a bunch of people think about running, a few do and someone is chosen. It might even happen again four years later!
The Jackson Three
Sandi, Jesse Jr. and Johnathan (?!) are all looking at making a run, but Jesse Sr. could still kick all their asses.
He was a breath of fresh air last night on Chicago Tonight making the familiar yet continually submerged point that the further you get from the Loop, the less Chicago looks like the gleaming city in the imaginations of reporters, pundits and the mayor’s PR squad.
By contrast, Sandi Jackson continues to be stunningly unimpressive.
SANDI JACKSON: We’ve not had a discussion about it. My husband and I have not had a chance to discuss it.
PHIL PONCE: You’ve not?
SANDI JACKSON: Absolutely not.
So you’re telling us, Sandi, that the moment you heard Daley was stepping down neither you nor your husband hit the speed-dial to each other to discuss the news and broach the topic of running, even though you’re not yet ruling it out?
I mean, it is possible – if they decided long ago that they were both too toxic given Junior’s problems arising from the Blago trial. But still . . . it’s unfathomable.
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“I’m considering it,” Sandi said on Wednesday. “I love campaigns.”
Maybe we could rent a barn!
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For more Sandi silliness . . .
Presidential Poop
Shouldn’t Obama shut the hell up?
Then again, Obama endorsed the last mayor who was elected with the help of an illegal patronage army . . .
Evil Unabated
Daley’s work not yet done.
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More Pathetic Than Funny
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Scrootening daily.
Posted on September 10, 2010