John, your post on Dinkins was spot on. I live in NY. In terms of personal character and dignified bearing, Dinkins was the very model of a modern mayor. I fell for it the first time he ran against Giuliani. But Dinkins simply did a bad job. He had the presence of a leader but not the substance. He was not the man to take on the squeegee men at traffic lights, the panhandlers on subways, the homeless camped out in Grand Central Station, the drug dealers in Bryant Park. The list goes on. Dinkins had the liberal view that until the wealth of America was equitably redistributed, crime was inevitable and, in some sense, a just punishment for America’s crimes. The election of Dinkins was supposed to diminish racial animosity in NYC but, as I remember it, as the crime rate went up, there was more distrust between the races. I think it is fair to say that in terms of character and temperament Giuliani is less deserving of the Kingdom of Heaven than Dinkins. But it must be admitted that Giuliani did a far better job as mayor than Dinkins. In Obama I see someone similar to Dinkins. Obama will not take on the international squeegee men like Chavez or Mullah bin Moron. Indeed, there is some part of Obama’s consciousness that thinks the evil in the world is nothing more than an understandable reaction to American arrogance and that a gentle leader like himself, just by his very presence, will cause much of the hostility to America to dissipate.
