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Keller @ Large: Menino 'A Ready Heart'

BOSTON (CBS) - That was a pretty nice turnout for Mayor Menino down at Faneuil Hall Sunday, and I'm sure Monday's sendoff will be a warm one. People really liked Tom Menino.

Why was that, in a time where few other big-time politicians are quite as well-liked, to be nice about it?

No doubt personality had something to do with it. Too few politicians are as self-deprecating as Menino was, although they may have ample cause to be.

And there's no doubt in my mind that his mannerisms and malapropisms won him more friends than critics.

Related Stories: Remembering Mayor Menino

Who did you want running the city, some guy with a British accent?

But after re-reading Menino's memoir, "Mayor for a New America," I'm convinced people liked him for his brains.

You won't find much in the way of personal revelation or secrets revealed in the mayor's book. Most of it is a public-policy seminar on how to run a city using brains and heart instead of ideology and ego.

His critics said Menino lacked "vision," but do you have to be 20/20 to see that crime and the schools are the biggest problems you face?

Like his mayoralty, those are the issues given the most space in Menino's book, every bit of progress on them proudly cited.

As you watch what I'm sure will be a beautiful mass for Mayor Menino Monday, keep in mind his spiritual commitment to values his parents taught him: "help others, work hard, sacrifice for your children," Menino recalls in his book.

Read: Funeral Service Program (.pdf)

He writes: "To this inheritance I added sympathy with the struggles of ordinary Americans. I think people wanted a ready heart in their mayor."

"A ready heart."

What a concept.

Take note, other politicians. This seems to be a formula people really like.

Listen to Jon's commentary:

You can listen to Keller At Large on WBZ News Radio every weekday at 7:55 a.m. You can also watch Jon on WBZ-TV News.

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