In Tuesday’s very interesting New York City primaries, Bill De Blasio, a low key guy with the nearly invisible job of public advocate, came very close to winning the forty percent of the vote he needed to avoid a run-off, and be named as the Democratic mayoral nomination. De Blasio ran hard from the left directly at the Bloomberg administration, and his election stands as a rejection of Bloombergism, or perhaps an embrace of New Face-sim. If he wins, he will be the first lefty to win since David Dinkins, whose performance was poor enough to get Rudy Giuliani elected. I’m very skeptical that New York City should be in the higher taxes, lots more services game. I do remember what New York was like in the seventies, when it was poor and dirty and dangerous. I support reigning in the banks–I just don’t support New York City reigning in the banks. Some hypocritical self-preservation is sometimes necessary.
Meanwhile, New York’s Katzenjammer Kids, Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer, both lost.
Weiner was drubbed, Spitzer was defeated narrowly, 52% to 48%, but I’m kind of afraid that it’s over for both of them. It’s a shame about Spitzer, who has strong political instincts and a real appreciation of how Wall Street works, i.e., steals. I have no real insight into his thought process, but his entry into the race was a surprise; my guess is that when he saw the favorable early impression the similarly scandal-infected Weiner received, he thought that he, too, could overpower the little-known Scott Stringer and get back in the game. The plan kind of worked, until new revelations about Weiner came out. Carlos Danger and Sydney Leathers were not only too much for Weiner to survive; they were also too much for Spitzer.
And so exits Weiner, flashing the finger, with Lawrence O’Donnell catcalling “What’s wrong with you as he exits?”, with Huma Abedin absent and Sydney Leathers and her cleavage trying to crash his wound-licking party. Weiner should host and AM radio show.
What a great election.