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    Orlandu7Tom Scocca
    8/27/14 1:21pm

    I'm glad your wife donated to a liberal candidate, but Teachout has all the signs of being a perennial irrelevant candidate who very much comes from the part of the liberal big tent that doesn't really care about winning elections or governing. She's a pure activist, not a politician. I guess one could argue she's the less bad of these two specific options, but there's a good reason the WFP didn't endorse her when she was running in that primary too, and not because Cuomo won their nomination, because the realistic WFP alternative who would have easily beaten her in lieu of a Cuomo compromise dropped out when the compromise happened. She's a gadfly, pure and simple. I guess Cuomo has done enough misdeeds to deserve endorsing a gadfly over him, but we shouldn't pretend she would be a competent governor or has anything resembling a real political campaign organization. A vote for Teachout would be a pure protest vote, and while Cuomo out of any sitting Democrat deserves lots of protest votes, this "why can't a regular person be a good governor if corruption is such a problem?" line of argument smacks of the daftness of people who wonder why random names out of the phone book couldn't be good Congressmen or judges.

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      Tom ScoccaOrlandu7
      8/27/14 2:19pm

      Seems a little early to call her "perennial." But also: picking the least bad of the specific available options is the way our election system works. The Times is essentially taking a stance against contemporary American democracy—though without offering either a radical critique or a reformist alternative (beyond the vague notion of sending the governor a "message").

      And Teachout isn't exactly a random name out of the phone book. The question isn't why a regular Joe can't get a chance to do some commonsense governin', it's why an expert on the theory of good governance can't get a chance to try putting good governance into practice.

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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Tom Scocca
    8/27/14 1:15pm

    It's tiresome enough to listen to my coworkers and acquaintances go on about how all politicians are bastards, which is why they refuse to vote. After all, the system's so corrupt, it's not like their vote can actually do any good. To witness the New York Times editorial board do the same is to feel like Piggy in the Lord of the Flies, shouting impotently for civilization while everyone around you happily devolves into idiocy.

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      festivusaziliTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      8/27/14 1:24pm

      That attitude is even more frustrating in primaries, when you have a far greater ability to make a difference, both with your own vote and by participating in organization campaigns.

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      ArethaFranklinIsAboveTheLawTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      8/27/14 1:25pm

      Who's got da conch now, bitches?

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    PoopiesAFTom Scocca
    8/27/14 1:15pm

    Great post Tom. This is also part and parcel as to why the GOP act extremely conservative and the Dems act like the moderate Republicans from the 90s. The Conservative/GOP elite (think Fox News, WSJ Ed. page) is willing to give the upstart a shot at the Establishment, whereas the Liberal elite apparatus (no better represented by the NYT Ed. Board), is still addicted to hippie punching (See Hillary Clinton's entire political career), which, is why I think they cannot find it in their hearts to endorse the better candidate. She's a fucking hippie (in their eyes). That's why they cannot endorse her.

    Whereas, if you wanted to make Cuomo act less like a hippie punching corrupt politician, nothing could've guaranteed that more than endorsing Teachout.

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      Orlandu7PoopiesAF
      8/27/14 1:26pm

      She's a hippie in their eyes because she *is* a hippie. There are plenty of strong liberal activists out there with upstart challenges to corrupt moderate Democratic incumbents. She isn't one of them. She's just the only liberal activist headstrong enough to run in every primary she can manage to get on the ballot in. I give her credit for that, but only inasmuch as she's the only one who bothered to actually not be bulldozed by the Cuomo machine. That doesn't actually make her a good or qualified candidate, only the best and only protest vote option.

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      EvanrudeJohnsonPoopiesAF
      8/27/14 1:29pm

      This type of behavior has also hurt the GOP, they put forward two clowns in Senate races that were competitive, by running Angell in Nevada, and O'Donnell in R.I. So while there has been a push rightward, the Senate was lost due to this.

      And it is unfair to just blame the liberal elite for this, there are plenty of commenters on this site who love Elizabeth Warren, yet are all in for Hillary Clinton and her band of Wall Street flunkies.

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    Elizabeth BlumbergTom Scocca
    8/28/14 10:41am

    Teachout is a gadfly and a carpetbagger. I am hugely disappointed in Cuomo but that doesn't mean we should pick someone eminently unqualified for the job. How about if she gest some kind of a gig in NYS politics first before running for Governor?

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      Tom ScoccaElizabeth Blumberg
      8/28/14 11:18am

      "Carpetbagger" is kind of a funny concept to appeal to in a state that elected Hillary Clinton and RFK to the Senate.

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    hilikusopusTom Scocca
    8/27/14 1:23pm

    An inexperienced Teachout could have demonstrated her ability to lead by wrangling an endorsement out of the NYT.

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      Tom Scoccahilikusopus
      8/27/14 1:37pm

      Like Quinn!

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      hilikusopusTom Scocca
      8/27/14 1:54pm

      "Ms. Quinn inspires the most confidence that she would be the right mayor for the inevitable times when hope and idealism collide with the challenge of getting something done."

      I can't think of a bigger impediment to getting things done than rampant, unadulterated corruption in the seat of government. (Except.....not being corrupt enough?) Assuming that the NYT endorsement is a purely symbolic gesture, an endorsement for Teachout, the candidate most likely to do something about corruption, would seem to be both ideal and pragmatic.

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    guyguyguyguy1Tom Scocca
    8/28/14 10:17am

    They are not endorsing Cuomo because of how he handled Moreland commission, not because he has been a bad governor. In fact, outside of his handling of the commission, his tenure has been pretty successful, as the Times points out. He pushed through marriage equality, he raised the minimum age, he passed gun control, etc. He screwed up the Moreland commission, no doubt about that. Would Teachout (who is an extremely intelligent yet politically limited person, who I couldn't like more personally) have been able to achieve as much? No. That's the conclusion the Times draws, and it's correct.

    Cuomo's mishandling of the commission doesn't change the fact that he is the better progressive candidate, and stating that certainly doesn't make the Times corrupt and cowardly. Being able to understand and articulate the nuance in politics is what makes Times writers generally superior to hacks at places like the Post and Gawker.

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      CookieGugglemanTom Scocca
      8/27/14 1:37pm

      Tim Wu has a decent chance of beating Cuomo's running mate Kathy Hochul in the primary, which would make things interesting. http://www.nystateofpolitics.com/2014/08/honing…

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