Friday news drops are often saved for surprising or important stories. What NYC mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Morning Joe on Friday morning was neither of those things.
His campaign’s demise was clear to anyone except the bumbling mayor who had taken time out of his busy schedule of commuting to his gym in Brooklyn, from the mayoral home in Manhattan, to visit Iowa and give speeches to tens of people.
New Yorkers immediately had jokes. ‘That’s too bad. I was hoping he’d stay in Iowa,’ tweeted writer Steven Volynets. Of course, President Donald Trump had the best one ‘Oh no, really big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years! Part time Mayor of New York City, @BilldeBlasio, who was polling at a solid ZERO but had tremendous room for growth, has shocking dropped out of the Presidential race. NYC is devastated, he’s coming home!’
Trying to paint a rosy picture of his exit, de Blasio said that despite having to drop out he feels ‘very good about the message.’ What message, exactly, was unclear. The race already had a Bernie Sanders who, like de Blasio, rails against millionaires while being one himself. There already was an Elizabeth Warren, ready to punish success with insane tax plans that still wouldn’t cover the cost of her fairytale proposals. A Bill de Blasio just wasn’t necessary.
Nolan Hicks, City Hall reporter for the New York Post pointed out ‘What we got was a campaign that veered from “Tax the Hell-dot-com” (out of what, who knows — since there’s no noun); to Puerto Rican reconstruction (just weeks after skipping the PR Day parade); to a “robot tax”; to being “the Jay Inslee” of campaign finance reform.’
He ultimately stood for nothing but hating Donald Trump and everyone else on the right. That might get you elected in New York but, like many leftist ideas, it doesn’t work out there in the real world.
His happiest moment of the campaign seemed to be getting interviewed by Sean Hannity on Fox News. He got to play up his hatred of non-leftists and make proclamations like ‘I don’t play by your rules.’ As New Yorkers know, the mayor doesn’t play by any rules and generally doesn’t think the rules apply to him.
Bill de Blasio says his big regret of the campaign is not getting an earlier start. New Yorkers share that regret. He could have been humiliated and out of town for even longer.
