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April 23, 2006

America's worst mayor, a month from incineration

America's worst mayor didn't loose his job in yesterday's election, but it's just a matter of time. Ray Nagin, better called Ray No-Noggin, is the New Orleans knucklehead who left 2000 busses swamped in a parking lot rather than use them to evacuate. He's the guy who failed to deliver when his city was destroyed, instead creating a very effective smear campaign against FEMA. He's the guy who has overseen a city plagued by corruption before and after that storm. And he's the racist who declared that New Orleans should be "chocolate." Of course, if a white person wanted his city "vanilla," you can imagine what would happen to him.

No-noggin polled around 39% of the vote in yesterday's New Orleans mayoral election. Because that's less than 50%, there will be a run-off next month. These run-offs are typically very difficult if the incumbent wasn't already very close to 50%. A vote for any opponent is a vote against the incumbent, and 60% of voters voted against the incumbent.

Now with No-Noggin's noggin in the guillotine, he's starting to have second thoughts about the racism stuff.

With turnout apparently low in black precincts, Mr. Nagin appealed for unity after the results were in.

"If we don't come together as men and women, we will perish as fools," he said. "We must become comfortable with one another."

It's hard to be comfortable with a Mayor who has declared entire ethnic groups (whites, Hispanics, etc.) unwelcome in his city. Even many black voters, who too often appear to vote the way of the lemming, are thinking pragmatically:

Some black voters interviewed here Saturday, dissatisfied with the slow pace of recovery, said they were supporting Mr. Landrieu.

"We have no direction right now," said Marvin Keelen, who had journeyed from Baton Rouge to vote. "We can't make any decisions."

It's easy to predict how this will play out. No-noggin will get 42% of the vote, complain that black voters were "disenfranchised," moan that the results were rigged (they were rigged, but you gotta rig your way to 50%, not just 42%), get a visit from Jesse Jackson who will scream in public but read No-noggin his political last rites in private, and ultimately retire to the dustbin of history. Good riddance.

Posted by adrianjo at April 23, 2006 12:59 PM