I’m going to go out on a limb and make a public prediction. Rahm Emanuel will be Chicago’s next mayor.
How do I know this? I’m not an expert, political heavyweight or a Chicago insider. I know Rahm will soon be called “His Honor” because I have something all the experts and political pundits are lacking: common sense and an ability to connect the dots.
Rahm Emanuel is the quintessential political insider. He is one of the premier power brokers of the notoriously corrupt Chicago political machine. The same machine that was responsible for a lowly community organizer named Obama going from unknown nobody to President of the free world in the space of a few years.
Rahm’s first job post-graduation was as a community organizer. Sound familiar? He then proceeded up the chain of the Chicago machine as the senior advisor and chief fundraiser for Richard Daley’s campaign for Chicago mayor.
He then parlayed his astounding arm twisting, oops, fundraising, ability into Director of Finance for Boy Clinton’s presidential campaign in 1992, which earned him the powerful position of senior advisor to the Clinton White House.
Emanuel left the White House in 1998 to work as the Managing Director for investment banking firm, Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, in Chicago. In 2000, President Clinton named Emanuel to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Freddie Mac. During this time, it is estimated Rahm made more than $18 million.
After a brief stint in the House of Representatives, which position he resigned November 6, 2008, Emanuel catapulted from lowly public servant to Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama.
Based on Emanuel’s stellar political rise, I have to ask myself: Why would this man give up one of the most powerful jobs in the world in order to roll the dice that he, one of over a dozen contenders in Chicago’s Mayoral race, would indeed become the elected mayor of Chicago? My answer: He wouldn’t – unless the fix was in.
The only significant requirement for running for Chicago Mayor states that candidates must have “resided in the municipality at least one year next preceding the election.”
Under the law, Rahm Emanuel missed out by over half a year, because he resided in Washington DC until October. How then could the Board of Elections have ruled that he was eligible?
A day before the Board of Elections ruled that Rahm was, indeed, a Chicago resident, a hearing officer jumped the gun and told the media how the Board would rule, before the Board actually ruled. It’s quite possible the Board’s decision was not determined in advance. It’s possible that the video that surfaced of Rahm’s Chicago home posted for sale on You Tube was, as Rahm said, a “typo.”
It’s also possible that Rahm actually left boxes in storage at his old abode, despite his tenants declaring otherwise. Tenant Lori Halpern said: “There have never been boxes in the house that were not my possessions.” No-one has proof that the photo of stored boxes Rahm provided was not genuine.
No-one can prove that the Board of Elections ruling was a foregone conclusion, despite the fact that their ruling was based on a novel concept: “The question is not whether the candidate resided there during the prior year at all, but whether or not the candidate, once having held residency, whenever it occurred and however long ago, had ever renounced it.”
No-one can prove anything. But one can draw conclusions based on series of coincidences.
The day after the Board of Elections defied their own written requirements and gave Rahm the go ahead to run for mayor, Illinois state Sen. James Meeks, in a surprise Christmas week announcement, withdrew his candidacy for Chicago mayor. No-one can prove that this wasn’t just plain old good luck for Rahm.
More good luck for Rahm followed two days later:
State officials are investigating how phony signatures and stamps from notaries wound up on the nominating petitions of four of the candidates running to succeed Mayor Richard M. Daley. In the latest mystery, investigators are focusing on the cottage industry of paid signature gathers who help candidates collect names to get them on the ballot.
Again, it can’t be proven that Rahm had anything to do with this “mystery.” I’m sure in the coming days, more “mysteries” or scandals or discrepancies will surface that will further pare down the list of candidates. And eventually Rahm will be the only viable candidate left standing.
Since I’m not a resident of Chicago, why should I care that the fix is in? I guess I’m just plain fed up with being manipulated and deceived by the good old boys who give voters the illusion of democracy when in fact, most decisions are still made behind closed doors. And, no – I can’t prove it. I just rely on history and common sense. And the voters in Chicago should, also.
Not that it will do them any good. His Honor Emanuel is a foregone certainty. No matter how they vote. The fix is in. I can’t prove it. It’s possible I’m wrong. But not very probable.
The pictures of the Emanuel’s stored boxes included a white sleigh bed (headboard and foot board) which, if like all other sleigh beds were approx. 48″ in height. Odd how such a large item could be shoved through a door that was no more than 30″ x 30″. But then, we know that rules never apply to Democrats, so it must be clear that simple math doesn’t apply, as well. And why would one take pictures of a storage space, prior to moving out? And are you not required in Illinois to notify a renter of your use of space that they are renting? I smell a big, fat rat in all of this.
Why did Emanuel leave a job where he had such power to become a mayor of a failing city with high crime rates? He is NOT a stupid man. It has been his intelligence and cunning that has gotten him where he is now. So to give up a position like the one he held in the White House says that not all is well in Camelot. Obama will be up for reelection before Emanuel’s term as mayor is over. Is Emanuel worried that come January 20, 2013 he would be out of a job, and the mayoral position would have been filled?
Yes, the fix is in. And Emanuel is no different that the other people bailing on the Obama administration as Obama says that he is now going to exercise even more executive power. – Emanuel wants to make sure he has a job in two years. And one thing is certain, if crooked enough, Emanuel will be re-elected in Chicago.
I see in my crystal ball: two terms as mayor, then on to governor for a couple of terms, after which he’ll run for president – his ultimate goal.
He’s had a taste … now he wants it for himself.
Suek, do you think this country will be ready for its first Jewish President by then?
LOL!
Rahm’s ”residency” was a joke.
Only the Chicago thugs could pull it off.
But Meeks left after he said some unsavory things about how white people should NEVER qualify for Affirmative Action assistance….even when whites are a minority group in this nation!
Meeks also said he wanted the black vote not to be diluted by the fact that 4 of the candidates were blacks.
But that ACORN stuff is interesting.
Since when is it anti-Rahm/Obama to hire folks to go around signing up voters?
For maybe 1 year Obama will be able to bail out Chicago then it will circle the drain just like so many other union-pension heavy city governments.
Everybody in Chicago politics is a crook.
The system is set up so that the biggest crook always wins.
You are correct in pointing out that this has a deleterious effect on the rest of the body politic, even for those fortunate enough not to live anywhere near Chicago.
>>Suek, do you think this country will be ready for its first Jewish President by then?
LOL!>>
Jewish smewish! I’d vote for Dennis Prager in a heartbeat!
Besides … Emmanuel isn’t Jewish – he’s from Chicago! The fact that his parents were of Jewish ancestry is just a co-inky-dink!
(Just to be clear here…I don’t understand Anti-semitism. And I don’t understand why a person who has no religious affiliations with Judaism claims to be Jewish. It just simply puzzles me. Is there some merit to belonging to the single most universally persecuted race in history?? Does it give you bennie points? I just don’t understand it.)
suek, Judaism is both a race and a religion. The former was officially declared by SCOTUS back in the 80s when addressing nondiscrimination. i.e., a person can be of Jewish ancestry, but not practice the religion of Judaism. One might also say it’s also a culture and ethnicity.
That evil little totalitarian sh*t is just getting started.
Imagine being a citizen of Chicago at the mercy of such an individual. Step out of line, be destroyed.
Every outlandish fantasy these leftist Democrats screeched about Bush taking away our freedom and privacy, they are doing for real.
Damn straight the fix is in. And the whole slick deal is SO Chicago, the city where dead people vote, twice. As a former Chicagoan myself, nothing surprises me when it comes to that city and political corruption.
One wonders why elections are even held in Chicago. There’s absolutely no point other than to make addle-brained liberals think that there is such a thing as democracy there.
There ain’t.
As I’ve said before, the “Land of Lincoln,” seems forever doomed to be passed around amongst crooked politicians like a drunken coed at an out of control frat party.
CURT, WHERE IS OUR BACKGROUND COLOR
I’m sitting here reading this article and I can’t help but laugh. Who wrote this? Some gossiping school girl? Don’t even get me started on the comments, they’re even more rediculous. It’s sad how anybody can write anything and put it on the web and any idiot can come and comment on it thinking the information they’re receving is accurate. As for the author, you should be sued or something for writing false information. 90% of your information is incorrect. Better yet, quit reporting on things you know nothing about or get better sources. Also, quit watching FAUX NEWS.
Hey “RealChicagoan”: Are you trying to be funny? Everybody KNOWS Chicago is just another Democrite political cesspool. Rahmbo is just another vermin in this rotten, corrupt snakepit.
@RealChicagoan:
I noticed you didn’t offer up any facts to back up your opinion nor did you debunk anything the author said. So, the old adage, “opinions are like……everyone has one” certainly applies here.
That being said, I will offer up a fact…..real Chicagoan idiots elected our idiot governor, would you have been one of those idiot voters?