Sad but true: Democrats come up with lame turd for a tagline.

Even this is better…

How Hillary Clinton and the Democrats lost to the man-thing we now have in office is a case study on screwing up. The reasons vary depending on whom you ask and how honest they wish to be. Regardless, the DNC must get their marketing right the next time. And at the tip of that spear will be a bold tagline. Like it or not, “Make America Great Again” resonated with a lot of people. The Dems need something simple and catchy that captures what they stand for. With so much access to creative talent predisposed to your party’s positions, this should be an easy fix.

Early returns suggest otherwise. Way otherwise. Take a gander at the DNC’s new slogan:

A Better Deal: Better Skills, Better Jobs, Better Wages.

While some joked it sounds just like Papa John’s tagline, Better Ingredients, Better Pizza I’m afraid that’s the least of this slogan’s problems. At best, it reads like a line from a trade ad, a dismal piece of copy in a paragraph no one will ever read. At worst, bullet points from a strategy statement.

How can the Democrats be so tone deaf? Especially given their failure in November for essentially the same thing. Did Nancy Pelosi write this? “Better wages.” Who even uses the word wages anymore? No one under eighty, that’s who. The word is an artifact from New Deal era politics. Speaking of deals, it that the best way Democrats can assert their new platform –a better deal? Yes, we have a joker in the office but you’re not going to beat him or anyone else with a pair of 2’s.

Here’s what probably happened. They started with a valid insight: that Dems need to better reach out to the working class. Then too many people got in a room and processed too much data – a fatal flaw, I might add, of the Democrats themselves. A committee wrote this line and we can tell. Obama won two terms with “Hope & Change” not “Deals & Wages.” We can only “hope” the DNC “changes” this inept tagline or we’re all singing Hail to the Chief for President Pence.

The slogan generator, a silly App created by bored creatives, could do better. Or better yet, give me a call. I’ll write you a theme line with Curious Strength.

Saying goodbye to “Da Mare.” Richard Daley takes a farewell tour of his beloved Chicago.

“Da Mare”

The Honorable Richard M. Daley is in the final days of being Mayor of the City of Chicago. Soon Rahm Emanuel will inherit the throne, albeit banged up and tarnished. Good luck, Rahm. Mayor is the top job in the 3rd biggest city in the United States of America. And the Daley’s positively owned it. Between his old man (Richard J.) and himself, a Daley has held that job for my entire life. Let’s face it Harold Washington and especially Jane Byrne were merely temps.

In the midst of his “farewell tour” Daley has been hitting a lot of schools, visiting with the children, taking questions, etc. Claiming “education” as the defining issue of our time (and a key to his legacy), the Mayor is taking full advantage of these no-brainer photo-ops. We see him hugging children, posing with teachers… Given our public schools are a mess, I’m not sure it’s appropriate but what the hell, he’s “Da Mare” and he can say and do whatever he wants!

He always has. One thing you’ve got to admire (and even like) about Daley is that, unlike most politicians, he’s completely genuine. He actually likes hugging kids. Daley also likes trees ergo our city is filled with them. Daley believes in reading books, and so we have One Book, One Chicago. These are good things.

Not so good would be the Mayor’s tyrannical destruction of Chicago’s Meigs Field, the inner city airport located a 5-dollar cab ride from downtown. Daley made it a park –one that I hear is lovely. I’ve never been and neither has anyone else. Here the Mayor went too far, ordering the runways destroyed in the middle of the night.

Meigs Field, ruined runway courtesy of Mayor Daley.

It wasn’t the first time he took matters into his own hands and it wouldn’t be the last. In the end, like his father, Richard M. Daley was a dictator, but a damn popular one. No other Mayor defined his city like ours did. Even though sometimes infuriating, the Daley “Machine” was an awesome spectacle.

Last week Mayor Daley visited my children’s school, Chicago City Day. A private institution, the media coverage was understandably minimal. But he came and the kids were thrilled. Mine even dressed up. I asked my girls what questions were asked of him. My favorite: a first-grader wondered if there were log cabins in Chicago when he was a kid. The Mayor laughed his ass off. So did everyone. And that’s what we love about His Honor. He could be a dick but he had a sense of humor. And a big heart, almost always worn on his sleeve. That’s his and my Chicago: a machine with a heart.