Before Emanuel Looks at Mayor’s Job, He Should Look in Mirror

Rahm Emanuel, a man who suffers from Serial Cellphone Addiction, has been making lots of calls back home in the last few days.

I can almost hear the “Hey, buddy, what’s up?” salutation from President Obama’s chief of staff, a man who rarely dials without self-interest at play.

In some cases, he’s gauging what smart people think about the new Merriam-Webster Dictionary definition of “chaos,” namely the question-filled start of the next mayoral race. In a few others, people are convinced he’s trying to discern if they’ll run and be his competition.

Mayoral wannabes are conversing similarly all over town. Bloodless calculation may mix with self-delusion as each constructs a theory of potential victory. There will be doses of politically incorrect chatter, especially when it comes to “the white vote,” “the black vote,” “the Latino vote,” “the progressive Lakefront vote,” etc., and how those will be divvied up.

“It’s a mess,” said State Senator Rickey R. Hendon, a k a Hollywood Hendon and a newly published author of a distinctly relevant book, “Backstabbers: The Reality of Politics.”

“There are people waiting in the wings for years for the opportunity to be mayor, for reasons honorable and not honorable,” said Mr. Hendon, whose basic philosophy is shaft others or be shafted.

“Now that the king is gone, it will be an all-out fight. It’s just like my book, backstabbing. That’s how I see it.”

Mr. Emanuel is an alluring, catalytic figure. He’s very smart. He’s got a certain charisma and national media cachet. He knows how to leverage power and money and cut political deals.

He did a solid job when he was the congressman for my North Side district. Indeed, he often sandpapered his rough edges to strike an outgoing, engaging air, exemplified by regular Saturday morning sessions at supermarkets, where he would set up a table and simply talk to shoppers.

It might have been a pose, but it was effective and at odds with the fire-breathing Rahmbo caricature that drives his take-names-and-kick-butt reputation in the Washington echo chamber.

There is much personal logic to make Mr. Emanuel jump into the race. He has let it be known that he’d love the job. He has intellect and nerve, and the city has huge problems, like crime, out-of-control pension obligations and a school system producing too many students who can’t read or write.

And it would also be a way to gracefully exit his current burnout task in the White House, where he has won fewer friends than I had thought he would.

Notably, his managerial record, as opposed to his legislative record, is spotty, according to multiple White House sources without axes to grind. They cite a perceived lack of internal communication; a short attention span; political infighting, notably with Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to the president; a limited set of loyalties (many to Clinton-era colleagues); and a surprising lack of decisiveness on personnel matters.

He’s a terrific legislative and political tactician. You need only read Naftali Bendavid’s excellent book, “The Thumpin’: How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution,” an account of his role in the party’s regaining control of the House of Representatives in 2006, when Mr. Emanuel was the head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

But those talents don’t necessarily translate into being an effective mayor, especially with issues like crime, pensions and improving schools. As one friend reminds me, being a great teacher doesn’t mean you can be a good principal; being a good legislator doesn’t mean you can be a good manager; and being fabulous at national politics doesn’t mean you can run the $6 billion company called City of Chicago.

Mr. Emanuel is a superior combatant in a partisan sphere of supposed good guys versus bad guys. But the winner of the two-stage mayoral election early next year will inherit a job that’s really not about discerning an enemy and going after him.

It’s about crime, education, racial unrest, unhappy cops, at times inflexible unions, getting the garbage picked up and the snow plowed.

He has the name recognition, the money and the will. But he may want to look in the mirror, be honest and become the anti-Rahm.

This is not just about winning. It’s about inspiring and building coalitions after you win. A post-Daley Chicago needs a fighter, yes, but also a lover.