Baffled by Weiner
smartertimes.com

An "editorial observer" column by Lawrence Downes expresses "bafflement" at Anthony Weiner's standing in recent polls about the New York mayoral race. "As the race wades into the murky depths of summer, a half-dozen solid, serious candidates are struggling to outshine a tabloid-tested opponent whose success is improbable only to people, like me, who don't get it."

Since Mr. Downes doesn't get it, here is an attempt to explain: Mr. Weiner is running as the most centrist Democrat in the race. His campaign announcement commercial denounced excessive regulations on the city's small businesses, and he's been supportive of Mayor Bloomberg's policing policies. That resonates with a lot of voters who don't want to see New York's City Hall go back to the kind of naive Manhattan leftism of the Lindsay or Dinkins administrations.

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Baffled by Weiner
smartertimes.com

An "editorial observer" column by Lawrence Downes expresses "bafflement" at Anthony Weiner's standing in recent polls about the New York mayoral race. "As the race wades into the murky depths of summer, a half-dozen solid, serious candidates are struggling to outshine a tabloid-tested opponent whose success is improbable only to people, like me, who don't get it."

Since Mr. Downes doesn't get it, here is an attempt to explain: Mr. Weiner is running as the most centrist Democrat in the race. His campaign announcement commercial denounced excessive regulations on the city's small businesses, and he's been supportive of Mayor Bloomberg's policing policies. That resonates with a lot of voters who don't want to see New York's City Hall go back to the kind of naive Manhattan leftism of the Lindsay or Dinkins administrations.

Read More...