My Breakfast with Mayor Michael Nutter
My wife and I had a lovely breakfast with the Mayor this morning. I’ll take credit for electing him with my endorsement, but am also pleased at the amount of hope and optimism he’s brought to the city. Though that doesn’t seem reflected in media reports, even when the news is about new jobs in the city.
Some of you will remember that I endorsed Michael Nutter last fall in Philadelphia’s Mayor’s race. That’s the first endorsement I’d ever done, being previously satisfied with being a gadfly of a blogger here at ASZ. My wife and I also won breakfast with the Mayor last Fall, and today we bent his ear at breakfast at the Ritz. It was a lot of fun, and I’m not sure we could have a more personable and down-to-earth Mayor. Let’s hope this new Administration leads to good things.
Of course, good things are already happening, though good things happening in the city rarely get extensive press here. The Inquirer, for instance, devoted a meager inch or so to Verizon relocating 403 good jobs to Center City Philadelphia. As my wife notes, they’ve got Heath Ledger to concern themselves with.
A lot is going on with Mr. Nutter. He attended the Council of Mayors in Washington yesterday, but still returned midday to attend the ceremony where PA Governor Ed Rendell endorsed Hillary Clinton for President. That will do her well in this state, as will Mayor Michael Nutter’s endorsement of Hillary here in Philly in December. Heck, this entry is all about endorsements. I’m inclined to say that while Rendell and Nutter might help Hillary in this primary season, my own endorsement of Nutter, in both the primary and the general election, showed that a simple blogger can get things done. OK, enough tongue in cheek, huh?
We’ve got issues here in Philly, a whole bunch of them. My wife and I had a little time to discuss them with Mr. Nutter, from education to violence to taxes and jobs. I’m still quite impressed, as I have been since I first met Mr. Nutter at our local Drinking Liberally when he took on Brendan of Brendan Calling on the issue of Stop and Search (actually, it was quite an amiable chat). This man is a wonk, and he knows his issues and communicates substance about them. And he seems to be able to communicate to all sorts of types of people. I’m very optimistic about Philly right now, and hope we can all be, and also sustain that optimism.
OK, now on to helping Anne Dicker in her race against the corrupt Vince Fumo. Anyone Philly locals who want to attend an upcoming fund raiser for Anne at my house, please drop a me a line and you’ll get an invite. Or, leave a registered comment that has your email address, and I’ll get back to you with an invitation.
If any wish to attend the fundraiser and give money to unseat the corrupt Vince Fumo, please email me. The email here goes to me directly.
Thanks to all of you, and if you are not in the Philly area, I’ll arrange to take a check by mail. Just drop me an email, after all. We need to get corrupt Democrats out of our party.
My goodness. I understand my breakfast with the Mayor has attracted the attention of that irresponsible blog “philebrity.” Irresponsible? Well, I’m always available for comment, but I got no contact from them before they ran an item implying that the Mayor was inviting bloggers to breakfast willy nilly. Let me amend the record. My wife and I won the right to have breakfast with Mayor Nutter in a celebrity auction. We’re fairly generous with our philanthropic funds, but even we stretched ourselves to the limit in our bid for what we figure is a once-in-a-lifetime event. Our time with the Mayor, about 45 minutes, I suppose, was really wonderful. A kinder and more polite and erudite man you’ll not find.
If philebrity wishes to actually do any research for their articles, I’m still here. Drop me a line, and I’ll give you my cell phone number.