Another 10 finalists for Tweet of the Week are posted. My favorite is a wry political observation by my friendly rival, Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg, "President Trump is in my thoughts and prayers, though I'm not specifying exactly what I'm thinking about and praying for." Last week's winner was a slick bit of wordplay, "People think 'queue' is just 'q' followed by 4 silent letters. But those letters are not silent. They're just waiting their turn," by @LMHPhotog. Bonus this week is a revival of The Top Halloween Tweets of all time, refreshed and reordered for your pleasure.  My Wednesday column, Stop complaining about the candidates for governor and make a choice! strikes something of a bi-partisan tone but is aimed mostly at my whiny Democratically inclined associates who just can't get much enthusiasm for J.B. Pritzker. Consider, I suggest, the alternative. Elections have always confronted voters with flawed choices. Ballots are menus offering dishes seasoned variously with hypocrisy, incompetence, arrogance, venality, cowardice, naiveté, rigidity, priggishness and imbecility. Along with, of course, the fine flavors of nobility, sincerity, wisdom and so on. Candidates are imperfect because, like the rest of us, they're human and have led complicated lives. But unlike the rest of us, they've subjected themselves to a process that unearths and highlights their imperfections My argument today is that you shouldn't sit out the gubernatorial election because Gov. Bruce Rauner and challenger J.B. Pritzker are sub-optimal and have not always acted or spoken honorably. You may not like this choice. You may wish that different candidates had emerged from the primaries, ones with different baggage, more experience and smaller egos. But it's the choice you have.
Right now, Pritzker is said to be leading by double digits in the polls. I suspect the race will be tighter than that. Seven points, maybe. Say 48-41 with 11 percent going to third party candidates. My only upset special in Illinois is Republican attorney general candidate Erika Harold over the uninspiring Democrat Kwame Raoul. And if she wins, I further predict she'll be the front-runner for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2002 (if Rauner wins, he's pledged to serve only one more term). Nationally, I kinda think Beto O'Rourke pulls it off in Texas, beating Ted Cruz for that Senate seat. Total gut feeling. 
Dearly beloved, Rauner's edgy commercial is doing its job
I don't hear it. If Gov. Bruce Rauner's controversial new campaign commercial featuring images of a same-sex wedding is intended as a dog whistle to excite socially conservative voters, that whistle is inaudible to me. The cussing and the gay-wedding as metaphor in the commercial were efforts to excite indignation on the left and generate news stories and columns (check, check and check!) that would help the spot break through the clutter near the end of a campaign in which polls show Rauner trailing by double-digit margins.
I received some push-back from the gay community for this column, but I still don't see what had some gay people upset. I also received some supportive notes from gay people, so... I have no regrets about this opinion.  Readers: Mileage tax? How about we scrap road taxes altogether?
The email on last week's column touting the Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) tax was particularly stimulating. So I devoted a follow-up column to these responses and my answers.
I found variations on this argument to be highly persuasive. If we were not living Trump's America where it's never OK to admit you were wrong, I might just change my mind on the VMT tax.
A few readers gave me grief for a pair of gratuitous (according to them) swipes at Donald Trump in this column, since it wasn't really about him at all. I haven't responded but I'm simply not going to back down on the smack downs. There can be no safe space for Trump supporters and enablers. The Mincing Rascals is (are?) what Steve Jobs had in mind when he invented the iPod, which gave its name to the podcast Find our news chat program late Thursday afternoons and thereafter here or make it easy on yourself and subscribe, for free, on iTunes or your favorite podcast server (i.e., iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, etc.) so it shows up in your feed. Our most recent show – "Mail bombs, latest Rauner ad, legalizing recreational marijuana, Megyn Kelly" is at this link. The reservations I express about legalizing marijuana in this segment will probably turn into a column if J.B. Pritzker is elected governor. I know it's not very politically forward of me to recoil a bit at the idea of legalizing weed, but, well, as you will hear, I'm ambivalent. Most Mondays at 11:30 a.m. I talk about the news of the day with Bill Leff and Wendy Snyder on WGN-AM 720. You can listen on the radio, on the live stream or via podcast . Here is their page, and here is this week's segment in which I talk about Songs of Good Cheer....  Mary Schmich's column on this year's show (order tickets here and do it soon, because we sell out quickly!) did not touch on the recent unpleasantness at the school which has created some significant headaches for us. Mary and I are close with people in administration and people on the faculty, and, well, you can imagine. The show must go on! Thanks for opening this email and following the links, clicking on them repeatedly like a rat in a cocaine addiction experiment. We're not paid by the click yet, but someday, when we are, I'm hoping my readers will be well trained. You know what i found out, though? They track with especial focus the number of people who purchase digital subscriptions after reading certain articles or columnists. So if you're thinking about that..... | 
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