Wha?

I am sure that somewhere, Hizzoner Da Hon'rable Richard J. Daley, Mare a Da Great City a Chicago and All Its Great People, is confused.

The City of the Broad Shoulders has just elected a ballet dancer as its mayor. And he won without a runoff, easily breaking the 50-percent line with a 55 percent total. His closest opponent only had 24 percent of the vote. Emanuel is a former congressional representative and had served as White House Chief of Staff to President Barack Obama.

Daley's views on dance were never widely known, but it is probable he thought the only dancing a man should do was with his wife at wedding receptions, or maybe with a woman he wanted as his wife at a USO function. He did not have a record of public support of the arts, in any event.

Of course, it would be foolish to suppose Emanuel's collegiate career as a dancer somehow unsuits him for the rough-and-tumble world of Chicago politics. For one, the college where I used to work had a phenomenal dance program and I used to see those guys in the gym -- few of them looked as though they would be unable to give a good account of themselves in feats of strength or that they lacked for grit when it came to hard work. For another, the man sometimes called "Rahmbo" seems to have no problem understanding "The Chicago Way" when planning on how to deal with opponents. Although he was certainly speaking metaphorically in that last story, the mindset is clear.

Emanuel has also been noted as a man who is free with his language -- we could here have a case of Chicago deciding that those downstate dumbos who elected Rod Blagojevich as a governor need to learn just what the effective use of profanity sounds like. Daley, according to the biography Boss by Mike Royko, didn't much care for hardcore profanity or off-color humor and so this habit of Emanuel's might puzzle him also. Of course, the late Mayor was known to relax his restrictions now and again.

One might also, if one were inclined, see something in the fact that the Mayor of Chicago grew up in Wilmette and went to school in Evanston (his time there overlapped mine, but I do not believe we met. Luckily for me). Both of those are suburbs of Chicago, and one might very well see Emanuel's election as the Revenge of the North Shore Suburbs.

That much, I believe, the late Mayor Daley would understand quite well. And disapprove.