Mark Green Post Mortem

Tom Robbins did a good Mark Green political obituary.

For me, the most interesting quote was the following:

A woman emerged from the subway wearing an ID tag identifying her as an employee of the New York State attorney general's office. "I'm for you," she murmured to Green. How many in your department feel the same way, the candidate couldn't help asking. "Everyone," she answered. "Everyone I know in my bureau is hoping you'll win."

I had really thought the Democratic establishment had soured on Green, but this suggests that the political hacks dislike him but the policy wonks recognize his competence.

I thought Robbins really overemphasized the likability thing. Most New Yorkers I talk to don't follow local political campaigns closely enough to have gotten a strong enough impression of him to dislike him (though I've heard "I could never vote for someone with such a sleazy tan" enough times to be depressed at the state of our polity).

My gut feeling is that two things really fouled him up: the belief that he's run and lost way too many times, and the loss of his once-loyal black base.

If I'd been Mark, I wouldn't even have run unless I had spent the last five years proving that the 2001 racism charges were false. For a decade he was the most popular white politician in the black community, and in one day in Brooklyn he lost it all. He shouldn't have run unless he had mended that relationship. What the hell was he doing the past five years that was so much more important than repairing his reputation?