I remember Ed Koch fondly growing up living for a short spell in New York City. He’s feisty, combative, and blunt. Qualities I admire. Here are some comments he made today on the Democratic race:
As Democrats coalesce around Sen. Barack Obama, one of Hillary Clinton’s must outspoken supporters is not mincing words: the party is walking needlessly and unaware into a general election buzzsaw.
“I believe Obama probably will win [the Democratic nomination], although in politics you never ever can count anybody out,” said former New York Mayor Ed Koch. “I think Hillary is doing a magnificent job and is a great candidate and if anybody can pull it out, she can. But my honest opinion is, it probably won’t happen. And that he will be the candidate and that he will lose.”
Mistake is not exactly the word,” replied Koch. “It is the wrong judgment. The reason that the superdelegates are there is to select that person who is most likely to prevail. And…even though he does not win on his own merits in terms of racking up sufficient delegates, in all probability the superdelegates will be afraid to exercise their own judgment. And we will simply go along with the count of the delegates that were chosen in the polls.”
Koch’s argued that Obama showed a complete lack of conviction and leadership in handling the controversy surrounding his former pastor. The theme is a constant feature in the former mayor’s syndicated columns, several of which have directly questioned the credibility of Obama’s attempts to distance himself from Reverend Jeremiah Wright.
“I am shocked, without knowing the reason that it is happening, that none of the allegations with the respect of Wright, his former pastor, have had any impact on his polling,” said Koch. “I’m absolutely surprised because I think that all the things that Wright says — and nobody believes that Obama supports those statements — but he didn’t have the courage to stand up and object for twenty years. If you are running for president, you can’t be like some other poor guy in the pews who is afraid to stand up or even say something privately to the minister. You’re the guy who wants to lead the country and you have to have courage to stand up and lead your own pastor. He did not exhibit that. But the fact that the Democratic constituency doesn’t seem to care is a shock to me, but I’m certain that the overall constituency voting in November will care and that it will make the difference in the adverse way to his candidacy.”
Saying he would support Clinton and “hope she ultimately prevails,” Koch wasn’t worried that Democratic infighting could hurt the party’s chances in the fall. It was Obama’s candidacy, he repeated, that would be the death knell.
Obama’s candidacy is the death knell. Yup, this is a looming disaster. And Koch understands why:
But the fact that the Democratic constituency doesn’t seem to care is a shock to me, but I’m certain that the overall constituency voting in November will care and that it will make the difference in the adverse way to his candidacy.
Can it be any clearer than this? This is why in politics, words can not be minced. Bluntness is required.