January 2011
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10/26/11Michelle Obama Plays It Safe with 'Let's Move!' CampaignMichelle Obama was in Chicago Tuesday to promote her “Let’s Move!” campaign for healthy eating and exercise. It’s an important issue and worthy of the her attention, but it seems small-bore compared to other First Ladies'... Posted at 11:02 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (2) |
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01/31/11What the Sun-Times' Rahm Endorsement Doesn't SayIt was no surprise to me that the Sun-Times endorsed Rahm Emanuel today, the first day of early voting. The paper was a strong supporter of Rahm’s right to stay on the ballot, and the editorial board seemed to be strongly in his corner. There’s a line in the endorsement that caught my eye... Posted at 11:52 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (1) |
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01/28/11Some Unanswered Questions in the Mayoral DebateThe City Club/Chicago Tribune-sponsored mayoral debate at the WGN studios Thursday was lively enough, but some of the more interesting exchanges happened afterwards, off camera, when each of the four participants took five minutes of questions from the press. I asked the first candidate up, Miguel del Valle, why he hadn’t... Posted at 10:36 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (10) |
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01/27/11Patricia Van Pelt Watkins’ Gritty and Inspiring Life StoryMayoral candidate Patricia Watkins has seen her share of tough times—she spent her formative years at Cabrini-Green, she was addicted to drugs at one point, and her daughter died in a plane crash at 17. The 53-year-old community organizer who founded Target Area Development Corp., a “grassroots social justice organization,” has been in the mayor’s race from the start. But the first-time candidate has polled as low as... Posted at 10:18 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (5) |
01/24/11Northwestern Law Prof on Rahm's Prospects NowWeeks ago, when most people thought that the challenge to Rahm Emanuel’s residency status was a lost cause, Northwestern Law Professor Sam Tenenbaum dissented. He reminded me of that today when I called him for his reaction to the Illinois Appeals Court ruling that Rahm is ineligible to run for mayor because he does not meet the residency requirement of having lived in Chicago for a year prior to... Posted at 06:39 PM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (9) |
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01/20/11Rich and Rahm as Family Men—Some Striking SimilaritiesNot to take the comparison between Rich Daley and Rahm Emanuel too far—Daley in ballet tights?—but as family men the mayor and his would-be successor share a couple of key traits. When Bill Clinton came to town on Tuesday to tout the talents of his buddy Rahm, and Rahm responded by toasting his former boss, “I could not ask for a better role model than you,” I wondered what Rahm’s wife Amy Rule thought... Posted at 10:13 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (0) |
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01/18/11Luis Gutierrez on Why Rahm Emanuel Should Not Be MayorAs Bill Clinton hits Chicago today to campaign for Rahm Emanuel, Luis Gutierrez, since 1993 the Congressman from the 4th District, is recording a robo call urging Chicagoans to vote for Gery Chico for mayor—and not to vote for Rahm Emanuel. Gutierrez, the loudest voice in the U.S congress for easing up on immigrants, and, for a time, a prospect to... Posted at 10:19 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (4) |
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01/17/11Seeking an Explanation for Carol Moseley Braun’s Harvard ClaimWhen mayoral candidate Carol Moseley Braun—Kirk’s predecessor in the U.S. Senate—went on WGN radio early last Wednesday morning and claimed that she had “an advanced degree from Harvard” (she has degrees from the University of Illinois and the University of Chicago Law School), the only reporter I’ve found who picked up on the whopper... Posted at 03:55 PM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (5) |
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01/03/11Has Bill Clinton Hurt Rahm Emanuel?The news that Bill Clinton was coming to Chicago to campaign for Rahm—first reported by Politico’s Mike Allen on Christmas day and confirmed by Rahm’s campaign spokesman the following day—produced a harshly worded, almost threatening, response from Congressman Davis. Moseley Braun was silent for a day but then she chimed in angrily, calling Clinton “an outsider parachuting in to support another... Posted at 10:35 AM in Felsenthal Files | Permalink | Comments (5) |
Felsenthal Files is a blog by author Carol Felsenthal, a lifelong Chicagoan and self-proclaimed political junkie. Her focus here will be Chicago politics, which, in the age of Obama, extends to the national and international spheres. Felsenthal is a regular blogger for The Hill and The Huffington Post and has written several books, including Clinton in Exile: A President Out of the White House. Among her many stories for Chicago are memorable profiles of Michelle Obama and Rod Blagojevich.
