Sun-Times Endorses Emanuel For Mayor
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The Chicago Sun-Times has endorsed Rahm Emanuel in the race for mayor.
As WBBM Newsradio 780's Dave Marsett reports, in a Sunday editorial, the newspaper said Emanuel is the candidate who is "best suited to lead this charge into the city's future."
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"He has the vision, the policies, the management experience, the political sophistication and the sheer force of personality to be a powerfully effective mayor," the editorial continued. "He gets big things done."
The editorial continued to call Emanuel an "adaptive" politician, who has found himself in many elected and appointed posts with different demands, and succeeded every time. The paper conceded that the impressions of Emanuel as "ruthless, even a bully, when he wants his way" are not inaccurate, and "not from nothing has Andy Samberg on 'Saturday Night Live' created an impression of him that is foul-mouthed and threatening." But the paper also characterized this impression as incomplete.
The newspaper added that of the six candidates running for mayor, only Emanuel and Gery Chico are "fully up to the job," with a "record of achievement, toughness and smarts." But Emanuel stands out in his "relative independence from city contractors and unions" compared with Chico, and thus is better equipped to propose "unpopular, but necessary solutions," the Sun-Times said.
The newspaper also dismissed Carol Moseley Braun as a one-term U.S. Senator with few achievements and the owner of a business that has never turned a profit.
The paper also conceded that Emanuel has spent less time walking the city's streets than past mayors and even some more obscure current candidates, getting a real impression of the city by "climbing the urine-stained stairs of public housing high-rises" and meeting with parents who have lost children to gun violence. But the paper said if Emanuel is elected mayor, this is sure to change.
"With great enthusiasm for the future of Chicago, we endorse Rahm Emanuel for mayor," the Sun-Times said.
