I meant to blog yesterday about that new poll showing Carlos Danger dropping from first to fourth among New York City Democrats, but got too busy with Trifecta on that same subject. So forget Weiner a moment and let’s look at the top three contenders:
According to Monday’s Quinnipiac University Polling Institute survey of likely Democratic primary voters, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn leads the pack with 27%, followed by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, at 21%; former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, 20%; Mr. Weiner, 16%.
Of Quinn, de Blasio, and Thompson, I think I speak for most politically-aware Americans when I say, Who?
For a city like New York, you expect the likely Democratic contenders to have at least some nationwide fame, or at least notoriety. But this crew? A bunch of nobodies. Even New Yorkers must be yawning at the prospect of Mayor Quinn, the first Herzzoner.
Put that together with near-septegenarian Hillary Clinton as the frontrunner for president in 2016, and you’ll see just how shallow the Democrats’ bench is.
The problem is the same one the GOP faced in 2008. George W. Bush had, in Dick Cheney, a dead-end Veep — a guy who was never going to be President. The same is true for Joe Biden, although to be fair, Cheney never wanted the top job anyway.
Bush had an unpopular war, which hobbled GOP contenders at the state level, and no Veep to carry the party forward. Obama has a terrible economy, and only an aging Hillary to carry the party forward. That’s not to say Clinton can’t take the White House in 2016 — because she most certainly could. But what’s her platform? A “kinder, gentler” Obama? Undoing Obamanomics? “Fixing” ObamaCare? She’d likely limp And what kind of coattails would she have, when the Democrats don’t have any big names left even in New York?
She’d likely limp into office like George HW Bush in 1988 — with plenty of goodwill and a comfortable margin of victory, but without much to actually do.
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