--Do you think the state house of representatives sits around and brainstorms ways to further lose the public's trust and confidence, or do you think it just comes to them naturally?

--And, same question for the Boston Fire Department.

--Meanwhile, this really begs the question: What would it take for the MBTA director of safety to lose her job?

"NathanSpencer" asks, via Twitter appropriately:

"Are tools like Twitter and Facebook really helping candidates GOTV? Who is using it best?"

I've seen no evidence of it helping in any significant way with GOTV in any local elections, and have heard few if any convincing tales from elsewhere. I'd love to hear from anyone who has experience to the contrary, though.

The Qs keep coming! "Venkman" asks:

Do you think emailgate will make its way into the Senate race? Could Coakley's dismissal of the issue become an issue?

I think emailgate (the heavily reported issue surrounding missing emails within the Menino administration) has barely made its way into the mayoral race, beyond that core group of people who really, really care about that kind of thing -- who were voting against Menino anyway.

Here we go, off and running with Ask Me Anything Day! First up, "Rob" asks:

If Menino defeats Flaherty in November's election, does Flaherty become the immediate front-runner for the 2013 mayoral election? What are your thoughts on what Sam Yoon does? I'm also interested on which current candidates (Menino or Flaherty) other potential 2013 candidates are supporting/endorsing, and if you think that affects their future chances at all.

We got our first one-on-one mayoral debate tonight. I thought Michael Flaherty was very good, but Tom Menino was quite good, and as far as I know he's holding the lead in the late innings, so I'd say the mayor came out fine.

Speaking of innings, how psyched must Menino be that the Sox made the playoffs, so nobody in town could possibly find themselves accidentally taking interest in the mayoral race.

Boston City Council president Mike Ross confirms for me that his chief-of-staff, Reuben Kantor, is leaving to join the Ayanna Pressley campaign for at-large city council.

Kantor, who joined the political arena just a few years ago, has quickly become one of the city's top progressive operatives. "Ayanna will really benefit from Reuben's strength on both the political and the policy side," says Ross, who endorsed Pressley the night of the preliminary election.

In this week's issue of the Boston Phoenix -- in print tomorrow, online now -- I analyze the at-large Boston City Council race coming out ofthe preliminary election, which narrowed the field to eight. I find that local politicos believe that -- unlike other recent at-large races -- the top four in the preliminary will end up as the four winners in November.

Hmmm... Seems like some commenters don't appreciate my expert analysis. Oh well.

Anyway, let's back up and look at what I prognosticated and analyzed the last time I was asked, about a month ago -- and whether it still stands. First off:

I think that the prelim top four will likely be Murphy-Connolly-Pressley-Arroyo.