In the run up to the April 7 runoff in Chicago’s mayoral race, Mayor Rahm Emanuel is conceding that his combative personality may turn some voters off.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the Emanuel campaign has begun running a 30-second TV spot intended to highlight Emanuel’s warm and fuzzy side. He tells the audience that his greatest strength is also his greatest weakness.
"I can rub people the wrong way. Or talk when I should listen," Emanuel says in the spot. "I own that." Later, he admits: "I'm not going to always get it right."
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Emanuel’s about-face is likely the result of a surprise upset in the Feb. 24 primary to Cook County Commissioner Jesus "Chuy" Garcia, in which Emanuel did not win the required 50 percent plus one vote to coast to a second term, sending the race to a runoff.
Since his time in the Obama administration, where Emanuel served as a senior White House aide, a congressional leader and, ultimately, chief of staff to his longtime friend and fellow Chicagoan, President Barack Obama, Emanuel earned a plethora of nicknames for his cut-throat demeanor.
In 2012,
NBC Chicago published a Top 10 list of Emanuel nicknames, such as "Empermanuel," coined by the Chicago Teachers Union, for his imperial behavior during labor negotiations, and "Dead Fish — because he once mailed a dead fish to a pollster who screwed up a New York congressional race."
His notoriously salty mouth also spawned the nickname "Undersecretary of Go F*** Yourself," which was the nameplate on his desk as White House chief of staff.
According to the
Washington Post’s The Fix columnist Chris Cillizza, "Emanuel is trying to make a simple argument in this ad: I may be a jerk [and I know I am one and I'm sorry], but I'm your jerk. And don't let my abrasiveness get in the way of the accomplishments I have racked up in my first four years."
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