I walked into Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s post-election party last night, attended by a few thousand fervent supporters at the University of Illinois-Chicago, just after the announcement that Garcia had conceded in the mayoral race against Rahm Emanuel. People appeared morose.

But the DJ, surely under strict orders from the campaign, wouldn’t stop blasting upbeat music. As I walked past a union staffer with tears in her eyes, Chicago’s “Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?” began roaring out of the speakers.

A song posing such a question was a fitting coda for the campaign of a candidate who never really seemed to know what time it was in Chicago — or if he did, he didn’t seem to care. The campaign is over, and we can now say it openly: Garcia as a candidate was mediocre at best, and was far from the best candidate for Chicago’s current moment.