Try not to step in it. Rahm's first big ad campaign buy.

First, a SmallTalk Salute to the young guy who just rang my doorbell with a petition for an elected school board in his hand. I mean it's got to be 20 below out there with the wind chill. Signed it gladly and thanked him.

Just when you thought it was safe to turn the TV on again... S-T reports that Rahm is tapping into his $9M war chest for his first big ad campaign buy. Roll up your pant legs.

According to a new order, the campaign, working through AKPD Media, Chicago is buying a flight to run Wednesday through Nov. 23 throughout Chicago markets and through various cable networks. Longtime Democratic strategist David Axelrod founded AKPD.

Vitale

Maybe one of the mayor's new T.V. ads can answer Ben Joravsky's question: Why did Mayor Emanuel stonewall the Tribune?

According to the Trib, the architect of the borrowing plan was David Vitale, former CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, who went to work as the chief administrative officer for CPS in 2003, back in the go-go days of Mayor Daley's reign.

Mayor Emanuel was obviously so impressed with Vitale's money-managing acumen that he gave him a promotion, naming Vitale president of the school board.

Now Vitale is the guy who sits in his leather swivel chair at board meetings and tells parents—outraged over cuts and closings—that they don't understand the intricate nuances of running a big and complicated public school system.

Or how about this one by the Ward Room's Mark Anderson?

Isn’t it ironic that when it comes to pensions, two of the state’s most powerful politicians—Rahm Emanuel and Bruce Rauner—are claiming to be reformers even as they continue to rake in campaign contributions from the very firms currently making millions by managing the public’s money in the first place? No? Well, I didn't think so either.

Me neither.

But I would like to see the Mayor in one of his ads being asked by a constituent, why he won't do anything to undo Vitale's disastrous "rate swap" which is costing the schools $100M in payments to Rahm's banker friends? The ad could have Rahm answering (as he did): “There’s a thing called a contract.”

An ad like that would bring great echoes of laughter from all the viewers who have watched him piss all over labor contracts and pension agreements.

We probably won't see that one either.