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Commentary By Nicole Gelinas

De Blasio vs. an Honest Man

Cities New York City

Judging from Wednesday night’s debate — the last before next week’s primary — the question New Yorkers must ask before voting is: Can Gotham afford to take a chance on a slightly bumbling, slightly stumbling mayor?

If so, it may be worth it to give Sal Albanese, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s only real challenger, a chance.

De Blasio’s visions of a parade in his honor notwithstanding, New Yorkers are hardly enthralled with him. His approval rating is just 50 percent, even with crime at record lows and jobs at record highs.

So why are voters unhappy? The answer was clear at the debate.

Voters are fed up with politics-as-usual politicians — and de Blasio is the perfect politician. He can’t give a straight answer to the straightest question.

Should New York take down the statue of Christopher Columbus from Columbus Circle (and, presumably, change the name to just Circle)? “I don’t think it makes sense for me to opine,” de Blasio said. Do New Yorkers have the right to know when a donor asks for a favor, as several have? “High standards were kept to,” he says primly.

Read the entire piece here at the New York Post

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Nicole Gelinas is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and contributing editor at City Journal. Follow her on Twitter here.

This piece originally appeared in New York Post