THE MAYOR'S RACE AS SITCOM

I'm beginning to warm to the New Orleans Mayor's race; not because of substance, there doesn't appear to be any. The race as it slowly takes shape seems to have strong elements of farce. It won't make for good guvmint but the comic possibilities are seemingly endless. It could be sitcomtastic or is that sitcomlicious?

There's James Dot Com Perry who's running his campaign on Twitter and Facebook and seems to spend much of his time raising money out of state. It's a pity: James Dot Com is *potentially* an interesting outsider candidate but he needs to shut down his laptop, stop tweeting and knock on some doors to meet some actual voters. This virtual candidacy thing is from hunger unless there's some shoe leather expended in support of it. We've already had the Wizard of Oz for Mayor, we don't need a virtual one to replace  him.

Leslie Jacobs seems to be flirting with the idea of running even though her expertise, such as it is, is in education and the Mayor has bupkis to do with the schools. But she *is* rich and Sandy Rosenthal is her sister-in-law, which could lead to a loose cannon relative sub-plot and that's *always* fun. I was under the impression, however, that Ms. Jacobs is a Mike Foster Republican and this town isn't going to elect a White Gooper. Just ask Rob Couhig. Oops, poor comparison, Ms Jacobs has a full head of hair and isn't notably obnoxious... UPDATE: Ms. Jacobs had a meet and greet last night and said that she was a "lifelong Democrat" despite her association with Foster. That's a fact that she needs to get out there. 

John Georges continues to disprove the notion that all Greeks have a bit of Zorba in them. He's an opa nopa, y'all. Mr. Georges has more money than God but no discernible personality. The only thing interesting about the vending machine magnate is his wobbly political journey from Republican to Independent to Democrat. (Hmm, I wonder if he plans to revive the Whig party next?)  He mistakenly thinks that running first in Orleans Parish in the 2007 Governor's race is significant when it was all about the street money. Georges has enough cold hard cash to finish as high as second or third in an open field but if he's elected Mayor, I will eat one of Mark Folse's straw hats under the gaze of General/President Jackson in the Square. Having said that, I do find Georges' delusions of grandeur to be most amusing. He could play the eccentric millionaire who's so dull that he's funny in our sitcom. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Ed Murray's part in the campaign is obvious: every sitcom needs a straight man and who's duller than Ed? Well, John Georges is but he's already been cast. Murray's main asset is that he's not C Ray Nagin: a man who dreams big and delivers small. Murray looks increasingly like the tortoise in this race but now that I think of it, there aren't any hares. I have one suggestion for Murray to liven things up: he could claim to be baseball Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray to capture the vital Orioles fan vote...

Mitch Landrieu is doing some polling to see if he should think again about considering to run even though he said he wouldn't. I like Mitch; he's a nice guy with a fine tenor singing voice but the Hamlet act is wearing thin. He's becoming the Adlai Stevenson of NOLA politics: a guy who can't make up his mind and wears his indecision on his sleeve. Adlai only won one election in his life so Mitch has that beat; except in New Orleans Mayoral races where he's 0 and 2. Of course, if he does run the Landrieus can revive their brother and sister act: Mary is currently dancing the old soft shoe about health care reform, after all...

Finally, I am somewhat alarmed about the impact that this sitcom of an election is having on Clancy DuBos. He seems to be channeling some movie or tevee wise guy in his latest column but I'm not sure which one it is. It can't be Joey Pants from The Sopranos, Jeffrey's already got the pants angle zipped locked up. Clancy's too tall to be Al Pacino in any of his wise guy roles although the fuhgettaboutit shtick is straight out of Donny Brasco. Hmm, now that I think of it, Clancy is more like Nathan Detroit of Guys and Dolls fame. Our local Damon Runyon, Ronnie Virgets has been known to turn a colorful phrase or three in the pages of the Gambit, after all. Btw, Ronnie would be an outstanding recurring character in our wee sitcom: the zany Yat in a loud shirt who breezes in cracking wise and then takes every one off to the race track. Hilarity ensues..

Oh well, this race could make the sanest person crazy and drive a Mormon to drink but at least it's entertaining. It's a pity, however, that the stakes are so high: the city is crying out for leadership and instead I'm casting a sitcom, which is particularly ironic since the *original* 2010 frontrunner was Oliver the actor whose act is currently wowing them in the big house. 

tags: politics  nola  media  

links: digg this    del.icio.us    technorati    reddit