Hey, it’s hard to blame him.
Who would want the job of cleaning up the mess left by Rahm Emanuel?
The man learned everything he knows while serving in the Clinton and Obama administrations, which I guess means he knows when the getting is good. Downtown Chicago looks sharp, but the gun-controlled neighborhoods are war zones and legacy pension costs threaten to see Chicago following Detroit as the second major American city to go through bankruptcy.
Emanuel appears to have somewhat kicked that can down the road with a tax increase, but he hasn’t changed the fundamental fiscal realities of the situation. The city is still committing way more dollars than it will ever be able to come up with.
But it might have been an act of Kaepernickian foolishness that did him in. And while it’s far from clear Emanuel would have stood a chance if he’d sought re-election, regardless of the fact that he’s raised a ton of money toward the effort. But we’ll never know because he’s decided to skedaddle:
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Tuesday he wouldn’t seek a third term in office.
The announcement marks a dramatic reversal for Mr. Emanuel, who had raised a substantial campaign war chest and has been talking for months about his third term.
“This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime,” Mr. Emanuel said in a statement Tuesday morning. “You hire us to get things done—and pass the torch when we’ve done our best to do what you hired us to do.”
Mr. Emanuel, a former chief of staff to President Barack Obama and a senior adviser to Bill Clinton, has presided over a building boom in the nation’s third-largest city, but Chicago also struggled with an increase in violent crime in the south and west sides. His handling of the police shooting of a black teenager in 2014 eroded his support in the city’s large African-American community. Jury selection for that trial is expected to start this week.
Mr. Emanuel fired Garry McCarthy, the chief of police, as a result of that shooting. Mr. McCarthy is now one of 12 candidates running to succeed him.
Chicago has long been a very trendy place for young people to move to, because of high-paying jobs and an exciting nightlife. (I guess. It’s not the sort of thing that excites me but to each his own.)
But it’s hard to enjoy life when it’s hard to stay alive, and that’s become an increasing problem in Chicago in recent years. Tighter gun control doesn’t appear to have improved the situation at all, to the bewilderment of liberal politicians who think gun control solves everything.
Scapegoating his police chief was a move not appreciated by the city’s voters, who want to see real action on crime and understand the pressure police are under in day-to-day situations. The overall truth is that Emanuel hasn’t solved much of anything, and he doesn’t seem to have any new ideas to put toward the effort.
Sounds very much like the two presidents he served. I’d say it’s time to give someone else a shot.
