It should be viewed as an accomplishment on his part that Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been one of the most divisive politicians in the city’s history. That distinction isn’t an easy one to attain considering the mind-boggling lack of accountability seen in the history of Chicago politics. Deflect, deflect, deflect.
Now Emanuel is deflecting himself right out of the mayor’s office.
On Tuesday, Emanuel announced that he won’t seek a third term in office. The fact that Emanuel served two terms is a testament to the far-Left politics that have dominated the Chicago mayor’s office since 1931.
“I’ve decided not to seek re-election,” Emanuel said. “This has been the job of a lifetime, but it is not a job for a lifetime.”
Did this guy actually give the excuse of imposing term limits on himself as the reason he won’t be in office next term? Never mind all of the plagues Emanuel has ignored on his watch.
According to the Chicago Tribune:
But he also has been saddled with unpopularity, particularly among African-American voters, for his handling of the Laquan McDonald police shooting controversy, which led to a federal civil rights investigation of the police department, accusations of a City Hall cover-up and weeks of street protests that called for Emanuel’s resignation.
Police issues aside, Emanuel also had drawn the ire of some voters for record property taxes he instituted to shore up the city’s woefully underfunded police employee pensions and for closing 50 schools in 2013, a move he said was necessary because of significant under enrollment in schools on the city’s South and West Sides. The Emanuel administration’s ongoing struggle to tamp down recent spikes in gun violence – including a recent weekend in which 64 were shot, 12 of them fatally – also drew regular criticisms that he hadn’t done enough to provide more job and economic opportunities on the South and West Sides.
The Left ate up one of their own, and one of their own decided that he couldn’t take it anymore. Emanuel will justifiably leave behind a legacy that saw Chicago’s violent crime rate reach heights it hadn’t seen in decades.
Emanuel was thrust into public consciousness when he became friend of former president Barack Obama's first White House Chief of Staff in 2009 before leaving and becoming mayor of Chicago in 2011.
The Tribune also reported that “twelve challengers already have announced their candidacies.” It looks like Emanuel’s days may have already been numbered, regardless of his decision to not seek re-election.
For video of Emanuel’s comments, watch below: