As the legendary New Yorker Yogi Berra said: it’s deja vu all over again. A disastrous fourth place finish in this week’s Democratic primary for the city’s mayoralty, entrepreneur and internet star Andrew Yang has confirmed a political profile consistent with the reputation of the German armed forces in world wars — starts strong, but definitely fades down the stretch.
We won’t officially know the next mayor of New York City for some time. But it’s looking good for frontrunner Eric Adams. And we know the next mayor will not be Andrew Yang. He said so, as he conceded on Tuesday night.
“You all know I am a numbers guy, I’m someone who traffics in what’s happening by the numbers, and I am not going to be the next mayor of New York City,” Yang told a deflated crowd. This is something Adams’ remaining rivals — Maya Wiley, a hipster favourite of Brooklyn and Queens, and Sylvia Garcia, paragon of the Manhattan Democratic establishment — declined to do. They’re clinging to the (very) outside chance of a surprise finish.
Mr. Yang won’t have that chance. He blew it.
For Yang, this has become something of a pattern. He is perhaps both the most underrated and overrated figure in American politics. In the 2020 presidential race, Yang leapt from obscurity to become the most prominent Asian-American politician in the country’s history. Not a joke, as the president would say. He developed a cult following, built on the internet, and a promise — universal basic income — whose time may yet come.
When push came to shove, Yang dramatically under-performed. He failed to get off the ground in either crucial primary states of Iowa or New Hampshire, dropping out after the latter. Unlike Joe Biden (who also struggled early), he had no ace in the hole planned in South Carolina, where black voters saved the eventual 46th president.
He’s delivered a repeat performance in the Big Apple. Initially the front-runner, even though he had no experience in New York politics, now Yang’s pitiful final score may mark the end of his political career.
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SubscribeI always wondered – who came first? Yogi Bear or Yogi Berra?
There ain’t nuthin’ witty or clever about the know-all-ism that comes with smug ex post rationalizations.
But there was, at least, one affirmative proposition advanced here: the waffling on the Israeli-Hamas business may have costly. May have, and I am sure it was, but it would be nice if we could some numbers on that. Right?