The Anti-Big-Time-Photo-Opp Mayor
I know you will correct me if I’m wrong, but I can’t think of one time Mayor Daley has tip-toed into (yet alone glommed onto) the limelight of any of our championship sports teams.
I don’t remember photos or tv shots of him at Bulls games or photos of him shaking hands with Michael Jordan at a local steak joint. I think maybe he showed up for the Bulls celebrations in Grant Park.
Same goes for the Sox. I have not seen his face once in connection with their winning spree and trip to the World Series. No photos in the stands a la Giuliani. No t.v. coverage of him wearing a Sox hat, sitting next to his wife in the pouring Game 2 rain (unless maybe I got up for chips and missed it). And, you know, he’s one of the biggest Sox fans this city’s got.
Here’s a photo opp he agreed to at a Little League game.
I think Daley’s indifference to widespread, mostly positive, media exposure is almost unheard of in politicians, and I respect him enormously for it.
Now if he would just make the damn buses run on time.
Photo via MLB.com
He’s been at several Sox playoff games, sporting a sweat-stained Sox cap.
It’s just not a big deal for him, I’d think; unlike a lot of politicians, going to a game is a normal thing for him, and has been since he was a kid going to the games with his father and brothers.
But lord, listen to him talk about the Sox, and you can see how much of a fan he is.
Yeah, it seems to me the diff isn’t that Daley doesn’t like a photo op, it’s that he actually *is* a Sox fan and seeing him at a game isn’t that out of the ordinary, as opposed to politicians who would never go to a game, showing up to capitalize on the buzz.
Either that or he’s just too busy promoting friends, family and campaign contributors to prominent positions in city government. Whatever.
That’s why we love him. Even if he roots for the Sox.
Before I wrote that, I image googled “Giuliani Yankees” to see if I was just imagining it — and there were all kinds of photos of him schmoozing with the team, getting champagne poured on his head, wearing uniform-like outfits. I think Daley is truly not interested in promoting himself via our sports teams — he is, as we said a real fan and, as Dave points out, needs his time to work on patronage stuff.
I once saw Jesse Jackson at a shopping mall, and he was all quiet and dignified and then the cameras came on and it was if someone stuck four hundred batteries in him. He LIT up. I don’t think Daley’s like that, but plenty of other politicians in addition to Jackson are.