Obama for Chicago Mayor!

Reihan Salam's career advice for Barack Obama: Give up the presidency and run for mayor of Chicago. No, wait, he's serious! Richard Daley's decision to retire has thrown the city into a tizzy, and who better to take over than a person who knows Chicago's neighborhoods, feels "passionately" about the place, and has "built a diverse coalition in a city sorely in need of new leadership"? Not to mention the fact that one of Obama's inspirations was Harold Washington, the first African-American mayor of Obama's adopted city.

Sure, Obama already has a job. "But is the presidency the right job?" Salam writes in the Daily Beast. "It is possible that Barack Obama’s unique talents are actually wasted on the White House. In a status-obsessed society, it seems to odd to think that the most prestigious and powerful job isn’t necessarily the right job. Yet that’s often true, and the president would send a powerful signal to that effect were he to take the courageous and difficult step of resigning." And while Salam knows Obama won't run, he can't help but ask, "Would you rather be mayor of one of the world’s great cities or spend your days scrapping with Speaker John Boehner?"
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