The fantasy world of a de Blasio POTUS bid

Yes, I know Allahpundit wrote about this last night, but this is one candidacy I can’t keep my mouth shut on. I’ve been covering New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio for a long time now and up until this point, I’d always assumed that his presumed flirtations with a presidential run were more of a ploy to simply raise his national profile in the Democratic Party. I never thought he was actually going to do it. And yet, here we are.

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So as Hizzonor embarks on what has quickly become the most mocked and ridiculed presidential bid in modern history, let’s take a brief walk down memory lane. Leave aside for the moment how comically inept he has been as mayor. Forget about his endless stream of wacky ideas like eliminating skyscrapers in the Big Apple. We can even skip over that time he murdered the groundhog. Let’s just get straight to the corruption.

He made his announcement in the same week that two men literally pleaded guilty to bribing him and are going to prison.

But they weren’t the only ones. Harendra Singh pleaded guilty to bribing the Mayor last year. Jona Rechnitz had already made the same plea deal in 2017.

Of course, questionable handling of the public purse seems to run in the family. His wife made almost a billion dollars disappear for a mental health program that delivered basically zero results and where nobody seems to have kept track of the money.

Or shall we talk about Jeremy Reichberg and the private jet with hookers onboard heading for Vegas?

Bill de Blasio managed to get himself elected mayor in what is very likely the only place in the country where he could attract any votes from people not sharing his last name. And he immediately set to work figuring out ways to get around the city’s campaign finance laws. In that, at least, he was stunningly successful. Under his leadership, the mass transit system has turned into a dysfunctional, urine splattered mess. His bungled management of the New York City Housing Authority has left thousands of residents in apartments without heat or power for months on end. (The NYCHA is now in federal receivership because it financially collapsed.)

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If he wants to talk about education as a campaign promise, ask him about his “Renewal Schools” program. That gem was supposed to turn around the city’s failing schools and advance educational opportunities for minority students. After flushing more than $750 million into it, the program was abandoned with no measurable results.

This guy basically has the opposite of the Midas Touch. Everything he gets his paws on almost invariably turns to crap. And now he wants to run for President? Even I’m not foolish enough to hope that the Democrats would hand Trump a second term by nominating this guy. Go home, Bill. You’re drunk.

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Ed Morrissey 10:00 PM | November 22, 2024
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