Weiner

I went to see the documentary on disgraced politician, Anthony Weiner, yesterday. Watching him essentially tank his political career and his life was like watching a train wreck. After he resigned from Congress over texting pictures of his crotch, he decided to run for Mayor of New York City. I was living in Brooklyn when he launched his run for Mayor and, at first, I thought he'd be a great booster for the city. He was born and raised in the city, he was a fighter, he had a big mouth (something you need as Mayor of New York), and people (myself included) were willing to forgive him for his crotch-texting because he told people that behavior was in the past. The documentary shows how he started his campaign and was actually leading in the polls. People were willing to give him a second chance after he left Congress in disgrace. Bloomberg was (finally) leaving office and a lot of people didn't want another billionaire running the city. Weiner, it seemed, was the right guy for the job. Unfortunately, news came out that he hadn't totally turned a new leaf in life and stopped his sexting. He'd kept it up after resigning from Congress and, once again, he was back in the spotlight for his sleazy behavior. His mayoral campaign, that had been going so well, started to implode. His marriage, that already seemed to be on shaky ground, was disintegrating. Essentially, his life was one hot mess. Watching him and his wife Huma in the documentary was, at times, cringeworthy. Anthony Weiner didn't just humiliate himself with his sexting, he humiliated his wife, his campaign staff, and everyone who supported him.

When voting day came for the primaries, I couldn't even remember that Weiner was still on the ballot until I saw it in the movie and I voted in that primary. Even though his campaign was essentially over weeks before voting day, Weiner didn't drop out and I don't think he should have. He had come that far that there was no reason for him not to ride it out until the end. Obviously, he didn't win and DeBlasio is the Mayor.

In this day and age, you'd have to be crazy to run for any kind of political office. Your life is just on display twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. But Weiner knew this, yet he still kept making one bad decision after another and that's why I, ultimately, couldn't support him. (I voted for DeBlasio in the primary and the general election.) Weiner lacked judgment in his personal life and I was afraid that would translate to a lack of judgment in his political life as well.