The Inquirer gives us its endorsement of Michael Nutter in a lengthy editorial today, but only after a feature on Jesus White, everybody's favorite homeless, yarmulke-wearing mayoral candidate.
No mention of Bob Warner's Clout scoop last week that White's statements in campaign literature that he served as a city manager, mayor pro term and president of DeRidder, La., City Council aren't true, according to officials there.
Also, a look at the racial and religious dynamics in the race between the candidates and the surprise of the race so far: voting has yet to break along racial lines.
Then, there's the massive editorial laying out why voters should vote for Nutter, or Dwight Evans if they can't get themselves behind Nutter. But not Bob Brady, Chaka Fattah, or Tom Knox, "not so much an outsider as a novice."
U.S. Rep. Bob Brady is charming and loves his city. He's the cooler head who can prevail when labor tiffs around town grow nasty. But he is also the chief custodian of a Democratic machine hip-deep in petty corruption.
U.S. Rep. Chaka Fattah, erstwhile frontrunner, has lost his lead in the polls with an odd, listless campaign. To his credit, he has contributed a needed focus on the city's heavy burden of poverty, and the role of education in ending it. But his stated goal, ending poverty, isn't really within a mayor's reach. His plans for it seem gimmicky and vague.
We'll see if a weekend filled with anti-Knox TV ads and this pretty strongly-worded reason on why not to vote for Knox has any affect on polls.
When it comes to running a complex government, he clearly doesn't know what he doesn't know. He imagines it's just like running the many businesses he's owned and sold off. His performance in campaign forums betrays his limited grasp.
By his own account, his idea of leadership is telling people to jump when he says jump, and firing those that don't. He does not have the personality to persuade or to inspire.
In his lone, brief, much-hyped stint of government service, as a deputy in Gov. Rendell's first mayoral term, Knox showed his undoubted genius with numbers. He also showed his lamentable lack of people skills, which is why he was edged out the door.
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