Bill de Blasio 2020: The campaign no one wants

The world's smartest computer could not algorithmically generate a worse Democrat in 2020

Bill de Blasio.

Poor Bill de Blasio. Did you know that he is the tallest municipal leader in any major American city? This is probably the only interesting fact about the mayor of New York, but he never gets any credit for it. It certainly doesn't help that both of his immediate predecessors have been iconic figures: The image of Michael Bloomberg as a soda-grabbing billionaire technocrat weirdo looms very large in the popular imagination, and Rudy Giuliani is a beloved right-wing meme. In his home state, de Blasio doesn't even win the superlative for being the most craven politician, an honor that belongs to the Democratic governor, Andrew "Amazon" Cuomo. Can someone please think up a memorable nickname for him that is not a mild ethnic slur?

De Blasio's reported interest in seeking the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination is so pathetic that it makes the long-shot candidacy of his fellow mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, seem inspiring in comparison. All of this came into painfully sharp relief over the weekend when a whopping 20 people showed up to see de Blasio appear at a roundtable on mental health in New Hampshire. Fourteen of them were invited members of the panel. If a politician gives a speech in an early primary state and no one hears it, did it really happen? Yes, but only because of the internet. When party kingmakers say that de Blasio is "non-existent in Iowa," they mean it literally.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.