Room Eight is closed to new posts. The existing archive will remain up for the immediate future.
If you were a Room Eight writer and would like access to an export of your content, please contact the editor.
This site is not affiliated with or collaborating with any other news or opinion site.
IS THIS A SIGNIFICANT ENDORSEMENT FOR JOHN LIU’S MAYORAL CAMPAIGN?
Quite often in politics seemingly insignificant endorsements eventually bear lots of surprising fruit. In this year’s NYC mayoral race, such an occurrence could be shaping up. There are five top candidates in the democrat’s September primary, and the consensus amongst political pundits appears to be that the winner of this primary will be the next mayor of New York City.
After I wrote the first part to this column, I received a call from someone claiming that I must have known Anthony Weiner was contemplating a run for mayor; prior to writing said column. I did not. Later, I heard over the radio- I think it was on WINS/1010AM- that some firm was “push-polling” for Weiner at two positions: mayor and city comptroller. To me, the implications of this new information appear to be this: Tony is seriously looking at some kind of city-wide run this year.
It’s been exactly three months since I last submitted a column to my editors for publishing. This is the longest hiatus (by far) I have taken in the past 8 years writing on the blogs. Let’s just say that some of life’s challenges had me on the run for a moment; so I took a time-out. Let me acknowledge those of you who took the time to contact me just to enquire about my health and wellbeing. It’s nice to know that my columns are appreciated worldwide.
I start this column with exactly two weeks to go until the election. The debates ended tonight (thank God, or who, or whatever). Pollsters are now destroying their fingers and credibilities. Canvassers are becoming Jehovah-witness- like nuisances, with their incessant door-knocking and bell-ringing. Fundraisers are begging credit-card holders for as little as three dollars a clip. E-mails from Obama and his minions are flooding my inbox.
I start this column in New York City. It’s three o’clock on the morning of a public holiday we celebrate in this city: Columbus Day. It’s only fitting that I write this column today since it deals with a simple but profound prediction: Mitt Romney has no chance of winning next month’s presidential race. He will be soundly defeated. This is a general election that has been over long before the primaries started: contrary to all the media hype of it being a close race.
A few years ago I wrote a column positing that all five district attorneys in New York City should be term limited to twelve years. It was simply an extension of my thesis that ALL elected officials in New York (federal, state, city/local) should be term-limited accordingly. There is no need for me to revisit the many arguments for term limits that have been made in this city since way before 1991. Three referendums have shown overwhelming voter support for the proposition.
For almost two years now, I have been writing columns telling you that Mitt Romney will handily lose this upcoming presidential election. So I am moving beyond that now: it’s a “fait accompli” in my book. Romney is -and has always been- as horrible a candidate as any the republicans could have nominated. There are much better presidential candidates in the Republican Party. Most of the good ones chose not to run this time around.
Since I had some unfinished business relative to Thursday’s primaries, I thought I would do another pertinent column. Here is the big story: sources are saying that Chris Banks can upset assembly woman Inez Barron (60AD) in East New York. I am told that Chris got around 1500 votes two years ago as a judicial delegate candidate (without lifting a finger). Is that an epic of things to come this year?
It’s Monday morning (09-10-2012) as I start this column. Hopefully it will be published before Thursday’s primary elections. This year’s primary is being held on Thursday 13th September, 2012. The reason is simple: avoid the “09-11” clash with all its painful reminders. I have been told that in the future, New York will hold federal, state and local primaries in June: starting next year with the city council elections.
Although I haven’t written much lately, my focus as a political-journalist remains the same: to educate voters in the hope that they would eventually make the right choices; especially in Brooklyn’s elections. The politics of Kings County is as stale and stinking, as a week-old patty sitting in the rusty showcase of some fledgling Caribbean-American bakery on Flatbush Avenue.