Dart: Video Poking Fun At Rahm All In Good Fun
CHICAGO (CBS) - There are some bad vibes already in the race for mayor of Chicago. A little rough stuff Wednesday on the Internet. It's about Rahm Emanuel, courtesy of one of his opponents: Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart.
Though Dart tells CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine it was all in good fun. But it was clearly two different views of the same events.
Send Your Concerns To Jay Levine
On Day 3 of what you might call Rahm-arama, the Chicago native turned Washington insider got a warm welcome in Jefferson Park, catching voters on their way to work.
But if you missed it or anything else this week, don't worry. It's all on the Internet, at least the campaign's version of his first two days back home; showing him with men and women, black, white and brown, set to music. A video and a website reminiscent of Barack Obama's campaign for president; produced of course by the same people.
Overshadowed like all the other candidates this week, Tom Dart presided over the graduation of new corrections officers at Moraine Valley Community college.
While another version of Rahm's first two days, created by Dart's consultant, using TV news video was spreading on the Internet.
"Some went out of the way to see him. Some were not impressed," a portion of one report said.
"He does not belong here," said a woman interviewed by a reporter.
"I mean, he didn't give us a chance to voice our opinion," said a man.
And on and on. Dart's response?
"There is some fun in these campaigns, and there are different versions of things that come out," Dart said.
So this is poking fun instead of going negative?
"I don't think there's any mean-spirited part of it. If anyone has an ounce of a sense of humor, they'll find some of these things funny," said Dart. "As I said, this has all been very tightly scripted, so to poke a little fun at some tightly scripted act is good humor."
Tightly scripted act? Ounce of a sense of humor? Wonder who he's talking about. If that's their idea of fun, what's it gonna be like when they all take the gloves off?
CBS 2 Political Producer Ed Marshall contributed to this report.
