NYC DEMS: Draft Rangel or face disaster.

[Smarmie Doofus]

Or let's do something else, fast. Like import a prominent figure from parts as yet unknown.
The four announced candidates for the nomination are undistinguished and indistinguishable. Or they are distinguishable only in trivial ways: One's black; one's Hispanic, one's Jewish, one's a woman, etc and so forth. ZZZzzzzzzz.

The problem is that they don't seem to recognize that these distinctions ARE trivial. Yesterday's Times was full of Virgina Fields apologizing to Geraldine Ferraro because Field's campaign manager had dismissed Ferraro's endorsement of Fernando Ferrer (" I had to spend a few minutes remembering who she was.")This was followed by this gem from Field's campaign manager, a Mr. Mercurio:

"As a political consultant who worked on Ms Ferraro's successful first congressional race, and as an Italian American ( have we touched all demographic bases yet?) who was proud to see her as the first Italian American ( he's rounding third) on a national party's ticket, I was very disappointed to hear her endorse against a strong candidate who has a shot at becoming the first woman mayor ( home run!!!!) of New York City."

A "political consultant". That means he gets paid a lot of money to think like this. Alas, this mentality seems par for the course in NYC DEM politics. Might help 'splain, at least in part, why the party's lost the last three mayoral elections in a row ( this year will make four) despite having a *** 5 to 1 ****(!!!) registration advantage.

This is a blueprint for electoral disaster.

This morning the Times is full of yet another non-issue: Mayor Bloomberg's acceptance of a fringe political party ( the endorsement of which several of the DEM candidates have in the past sought and received)endorsement which has among it's leaders Lenora Fulani, a one-time leftist who has in the past made alleged anti-semitic statements related to Israel. The implication seems to be that Bloomberg is anti-semitic, anti Israel, soft on anti-semitism, or soft on anti-Israelism.

Folks , get a clue: Bloomberg is as Jewish as Levy's Rye bread and more pro-Israel than most of the Knesset. If there is serious political traction to be gained here, no reasonable person can see it.

Although maybe the paid consultants can.

Again, a recipe for electoral disaster. Bloomberg also happens to be a lousy mayor, who doesn't understand even simple things about the right to assemble and the right to petition the gov't ( his famous comment prior to the eve of the Iraq aggression: "The time for demonstrations has passed.")and is busily cooking the books to show non-existant educational progress.

All to rave reviews by the adoring republican tabloid media and the toothless electronic media that is just now reaping millions of $$$ from the Bloomberg campaign to show his moronic ( and persuasive) commercials while their news departments ignore the other campaigns.

Speaking of which, the DEM candidates will "debate" tomorrow morning at 6:30 am ( get to bed early; REAL early) on the NBC affiliate here. Part of the problem with the DEMS is the hostile media environment, no doubt. But I think it's time to:1 . get real and 2. think outside the box.

The announced candidate lack gravitas. They appear to lack anything important to say. Draft Rangel.

[Renew Deal]

1. You've nailed it.

The NYC race is a mess. The candidates are not great, especially the has been, double talking, loser, Ferrer. I knew that if Ferrer was in the race, he would poison the race. Rangel could be interesting, but I think this about as late as you can get in. Petitioning starts this week. I would also hate to lose him in congress.

I think we are in real trouble here. The Dem candidates are not great. Bloomberg has done a decent job and he's not really dislikable. There's no reason to hate him. I know saying that will set off everyone who will scream about the convention, but that's the reality of it. He's not as polarizing as Guiliani and he hasn't messed up.