A slight oddness

Here's an idea: Let's replace Chicago thug politics with Chinese thug politics!

With Richard Daley apparently ready to relinquish his long-held post of Mayor of Chicago, it's worth reflecting on the slight oddness of the American idea that the next Mayor of Chicago should be some other politician who happens to be from Chicago rather than some other mayor who's done a good job. They're going to get some Alderman or maybe a member of the US House of Representatives or maybe Rahm Emanuel. My understanding of how they do this in China is that they'd promote the mayor of some other city.

Yeah, if we could only get rid of those pesky "of the people, by the people" elections the way they do in China and just pick a mayor from another city. Never mind all those "slightly odd" silly local issues that a local politician might have knowledge of and the local voters might have a vested interest in.