Rahm Emanuel: C/D? (probably going to be a Chicago politics complaint thread too)

They juked the stats.

i think all cities do this, maybe it's worse in chicago b/c of pressure from on high?

man if i have to hear about how mayor rahm is courting tech and brought motorola back to the city and then listen to an audio clip of someone talking about where the xbox lounge is at their new merchandise mart hq
i am going to go bananas

hate this guy

he's pretty hate-able, it's true

also reported today: he has agreed to install air conditioning in the remaining 30% (iirc?) of CPS schools that are currently not air-conditioned. he made that pledge.

that pledge made, he returned to his office and went back to feasting on the organs of chicago's impoverished children while laughing heartily at a joke told by one of his many CEO friends.

http://gapersblock.com/mechanics/2014/04/24/the-new-president-obama-school-even-though-cps-closed-50-schools-last-year/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-rahm-emanuel-chicagoland-met-20140425,0,2516905.story

ha, one peek at that video series and that's pretty obvious. last thing we need is propaganda airbrushing a huge dick (figuratively) on emanuel.

it's too bad chicago politics are so dysfunctional that he's all but guaranteed another term in office.

i think the combo of being brought up in a north shore enclave, surrounded by the rich and powerful, and having basically ZERO capacity for imagining the thoughts and lives of those different from him — evident in any single interview w/ him — and hence having no real (as opposed to slicked-up, fake) empathy basically means this asshole will never change. i'm half-convinced he's a sociopath.

half convinced? i've been totally convinced for some time.

http://www.wbez.org/news/education/chicago-add-new-barack-obama-college-prep-high-school-110073

of COURSE it's on the Near North Side, you know, where all the disadvantaged students live

(ok, to be fair, Cabrini -- but that's almost gone now)

(or I guess it was all gone in 2011--guess I haven't driven by there for a while)

in the near north side there's already Payton. and there's Jones in the south Loop. there's Whitney Young on near West side.

why doesn't he just put it on the south side, like in the 30s somewhere, or father on the West side?

oh, wait, it's Rahm fucking Emanuel.

rahm will be mayor for as long as he wants to be, unless he's torpedoed by some enormous scandal. i don't think he's on some teflon daley family shit, i just don't see him losing. also he's still a folk hero to a lot of dems despite everything, bc he's basically as big an asshole as a lot of republicans.

he all but IS a republican, except on obvious cultural issues like gay marriage etc.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/marin/27635186-452/could-rahm-lose-race-over-bike-lanes.html

On one hand this is just the Sun-Times trying to stoke controversy with a headline. On the other hand, I like bike lanes a lot but it'd still be pretty funny if Rahm lost as a result of his work on them. If we keep building bike lanes despite that, all the better.

I want my bike lanes and Rahm out of office, too.

the new gun control stuff is good, i'll admit. but any mayor of chicago would do that.

he doesn't do anything for other people -- it's all for him. if it makes sense for him to engage in measures that increase gun control, he will. if it does nothing for him, he'll wait til it does and oh well if dozens of people die while we're waiting for gun control to be worth his time.

well to be honest how many politicians aren't thinking of self-interest above all? he's an exceptionally egocentric politician but i think the different is in degree not kind.

i like to believe that there are some. personal history would indicate that i'm not wrong!

surely it is a no-brainer for the mayor of a big liberal city to push for gun control. but that doesn't mean it's not the right thing to do.

all i'm saying is that he does it when it's convenient for him
like he does everything

http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140709/wicker-park/rahm-campaign-donation-from-development-co-raises-concerns-wicker-park

haven't read this closely yet but it looks pretty good

http://crimepreventionresearchcenter.org/2014/07/discussion-of-chicagos-crime-problems-ignore-what-rahm-emanuel-has-done-to-the-police-department/

http://politics.suntimes.com/article/chicago/exclusive-poll-karen-lewis-could-give-rahm-run-his-money/sun-07132014-302pm

If the mayoral election were held today, the lightning rod union leader who was the architect behind a 2012 teachers’ strike would beat Emanuel by 9 percentage points in a head-to-head contest, the survey found.

Lewis was leading Emanuel 45 percent to 36 percent with 18 percent of the likely voters undecided.

HMMMMMM interesting!

Well she needs to shit or get off the pot. And start raising a lot of money.

i don't think she should run, and i don't think she will. i have a lot of admiration for her, but she shares with rahm a difficulty in letting go of personal grudges and an inability when she's being interviewed to avoid taking little snarky potshots even though she has plenty more to say.

That's the problem with most potential candidates. They spend so much energy being anti-Rahm that they don't actually say how they are going to fix things. Just being anti-Rahm isn't going to get them elected.

true. but it will go a fairly long way!

i just met a girl who's office window looks accross lasalle and directly in to rahm's city hall office

just imagining a slow zoom into rahm's office with him standing right by the window giving you the eye of death

apparently the workplace gossip last week was that someone saw "a woman sitting in rahm's chair"

Does the chair face the window? Is he allowed to expose himself to that much light?

http://www.nosferatuscoffin.com/portal/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/noslookingoutwindow.jpg

I dream... of charter schools... everywhere...

Xpost I suppose, I can only speak to my voting tendencies, but I'll vote for Rahm again unless a viable opponent offers a compelling reason that they can do a better overall job.

you know, you don't have to vote if you're disappointed in all the candidates.

True, also an option I would consider.

please consider it!

Mayor of Chicago is such a crap job, it's amazing that anyone wants to do it.

mayor of any place is a pretty tough job

I'd at least rather be a mayor of a city that isn't in such dire straits financially.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/blogs/ward-room/Opinion-Beating-Rahm-Will-Take-More-Than-Good-Poll-Numbers-267036301.html#ixzz37TNHqrh2

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/clout/chi-preckwinkle-wont-run-for-chicago-mayor-source-says-20140715,0,1763939.story

That's disappointing. I'd definitely rather for vote for her than Karen Lewis.

"quinn likes talking to people face to face" is a good persuasive tactic for his campaign! i don't want to give him money or even talk with him especially, but "genuinely enjoys meeting people" is more persuasive to me than "rauner will eat your children's educations, digest them, and shit gold coins which he will then invest and use to purchase attack ads for his next campaign"

here's the email i received (i get them every day and enjoy giving a silent mental thumbs up or down to their persuasive techniques)

Governor Quinn loves watching the White Sox -- but you won't find him in the luxury seats.

He sits in the upper deck with the fans.

He likes to say he chose his seats because “You can see the game” from up there, but I know the real reason he sits there is that he loves talking to people.

Bruce Rauner -- a billionaire who owns a stake in not one but three professional sports teams -- is more likely to be watching a game from the owners’ suite. And that’s pretty much how he runs for governor: behind closed doors, surrounded by other billionaires.

That’s not the guy I want running my state. I’m voting for the guy who'd rather sit with me in the cheap seats.

If you agree, donate $5 or more today to be automatically entered for a chance to join Governor Quinn at a baseball game.

While Rauner hides behind millions of dollars of attack ads, the Governor is out there every day meeting people face-to-face, talking through problems, and fighting for solutions.

He’s hoping to get a chance to meet you.

You can enter as many times as you’d like, so even if you’ve chipped in already, there’s still time to up your odds.

Enter today for a chance to win:

https://www.quinnforillinois.com/cheap-seats

See you in the stands,

Carrie

Carrie Glenn
Senior Advisor
Quinn for Illinois

Caption contest.

Also, Al-Jazeera asks Is Rahm Doomed?.