Investor's Business Daily
09/08/2010

Rahm's Chicago Way
Editorial

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=546394&p=2

The end of the Daley mayoral dynasty in Chicago may set the stage for a man who never wants to waste a good crisis to take the reins. Will the Windy City be socialism's next victim?

Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's surprise announcement that he will not seek a seventh term in 2011 clears the way for White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to fulfill a personal ambition and at the same time escape the collapsing presidency of Barack Obama.

The Daleys, Richard M. and Richard J., with brief interruptions from an occasional Harold Washington or Jane Byrne, have ruled over the former hog butcher to the world throughout the memories of most Chicagoans. Their rule has been authoritarian in a virtual one-party town, but for most of their time in office, Chicago earned the self-proclaimed title of the "city that works."

Chicago was the political incubator for a community organizer who would become president. It's where President Obama sat in the pews on Sunday listening to the liberation theology of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright for two decades. Its liberal academia provided an educational haven for the likes of the former bomb-wielding Weatherman, William Ayers.

Now the wheels are wobbly, and Chicago has become one of those overtaxed and overregulated places where growth has stalled under oppressive taxation. Chicago doesn't work so well any more, having succumbed to the consequences of decades of urban liberalism, and neither does the country to which it gave Emanuel, White House senior adviser David Axelrod and President Obama.

In the wheeling and dealing of Chicago politics, Emanuel learned how to apply political muscle when necessary, exchange favors and scratch the other guy's back on occasion. He learned how to acquire and apply power.

"I would like to run for mayor of the city of Chicago," Emanuel told talk-show host Charlie Rose in April. "That has always been an aspiration of mine even when I was in the House of Representatives." With President Obama in the White House, and a Mayor Emanuel in City Hall, Chicago would be set for a "fundamental transformation," to coin a phrase.

Emanuel is famous for saying what has become the mantra of the Obama administration: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste — and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn't think you could do before."

As White House chief of staff, Emanuel saw an opportunity to exploit an economic crisis engineered by activists and government, meddling in the housing market through the Community Reinvestment Act and Fannie and Freddie. That crisis would allow the administration he served to take over health care, as well as the financial and auto industries, and at the same time push cap-and-trade and a 40-year-old liberal wish list.

ABC News' Ann Compton reports that Axelrod, a native Chicagoan who designed the strategy for no fewer than six Richard M. Daley campaigns, says Rahm has the president's blessing. "The mayoralty in Chicago is an unbelievably attractive opportunity," Axelrod said in a West Wing interview. "And I'm sure if Rahm decides to do that, the president will support that decision."

Plenty of other local pols, such as Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., may covet the seat. But Emanuel knows the ropes as well as anyone, plus where the bodies are buried. If he wants the job, it will likely be his.

A vacancy in the mayor's office of a troubled city would seem to provide Emanuel with both a crisis and an opportunity. The chance to transform a major city in America's heartland into some sort of workers' paradise is too good to pass up.

From what I've heard about him, the very thought of Rahmbo in the Mayor's Office scares me more than Daley.

The machine may get hin elected,  but I sure the fuck hope not.   it depends who gets out of his way.

Goodc to see ya posting Friz.  Hope all is weel with ya.

Oh my, oh my.  

Being a mayor of a bankrupt city without any prospects of landing substantial businesses other than retail is not that great of a deal.   If you want a workers paradise, you have to get jobs that wont move away or where customers wont just travel a mile or two across the border into another city to get lower prices or less taxes.   Then again, if he can control the gangs with the same attitude that he controlls the political opposition, maybe he has a chance to be successful.

I was just thinking last night that Rahm going for Mayor of Chicago not only puts him as the biggest fish in a slightly smaller pod (assuming he wins), but also gets him out of the White House right before the administrations gets roller.

From one autocrat to another.

Cook county will be doomed if he gets in.  I can only imagine, as well, what kind of ripple effect this bag of dirt will have on the rest of the state.  I think it might be time to get out of IL.

The real probelm is if Rahm runs he will likely get elected on name recognition alone, or by the city living dummy who thinks "hey, he has a lot of political power, let's put HIM in charge!"

it will be a disaster for the rest of the state.

And with connections in the WH, he may be more effective that D-D-Duh-Daley in pushing his ultra-liberal agenda through the rest of the state. We would be, in the words of Futurama's Bender, 'well and truly hosed.'

Sheesh...although if you meet the average Chicago voter, you realize that they are NOT going to elect anyone based on clear thinking, fiscal responsibilty and rational planning. They're going to vote for the guy who screams, "I'm going to give you free cake!!!!" the loudest.