OBAMA'S MAYOR GOES BATTY - AT 8:49 P.M. ET:  One thing about the late Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago - he may have been gruff, but he wasn't nuts.  We're really not so sure about his son, who has proposed a theory as to why Oprah Winfrey is shutting down her talk show, based in Chicago.  He proposes this theory at a time when parts of Chicago have become a shooting gallery, with kids gunned down regularly:

CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Daley had words of admiration for Oprah Winfrey on Thursday and suggested unfair criticism about her closure of Michigan Avenue may have expedited her departure from Chicago.

Daley said Thursday evening he's going to call Oprah to get the real story. But he's obviously concerned that if she says farewell to this city it'll be a blow to Chicago's image.

Image?

"I think she was the most successful woman that we will ever know in the history of this country," Daley said at a fundraising event for United Negro College Fund.

As we said, the mayor's mental state is in doubt.

The mayor says it was the flap over the show's season opener on Michigan Avenue in September that may have helped set Oprah's travel plans in stone. There was criticism about shutting down the Magnificent Mile for days for the taping. She reimbursed the city for costs related to the closure.

"That became a big rhubarb in the Chicago press -- beat up Oprah," Daley told reporters. "So you keep kicking people, people will leave, simple as that."

COMMENT:  Maybe the city should withhold the mayor's paycheck this week, just to hint that he might want to get back to the job. 

Maybe Oprah should talk to him.

November 20,  2009