de Blasio needs a Page-13

OK Shipmates, we've all seen or been this Sailor before;

Bill de Blasio might need to invest in a better alarm clock if he wins on Tuesday.

The Democratic mayoral candidate admitted that he overslept this morning, keeping dozens of supporters, elected officials and reporters waiting more than an hour for a get-out-the-vote rally on the Upper West side that had been scheduled for 11:30 a.m.

“Did I what?” he responded this afternoon at a second, delayed event, when asked by a reporter whether his tardiness had been the result of over-sleeping. Asked the question again, he said that he’d had a particularly “challenging night.”

“I got a call at five in the morning that threw off my sleep cycle. But other than that, it’s all good. So I wouldn’t say I typically overslept, I’d say it was a divided sleep,” he answered, refusing to share any details about the call.

Politicker reported earlier this week that, as public advocate, Mr. de Blasio often had trouble waking up in the morning, keeping staffers who were supposed to pick him up waiting for hours and showing up late to events.

The candidate today admitted that, unlike the current mayor, he’s more of a night owl.

“I am not a morning person,” he said. “I think we should reorient our society [to] staying up late, but I don’t think that’s happening right now.”

I'll say it; Bill where were you last night? Unless you've left your credit card at a bar in the West Village and woke up this AM still wearing your shoes - you have no excuse.

We all understand a good Liberty Call now and then, but if you can't make a simple 11:30am meeting because some pogue called you at 5am, then you can't be the LPO of the Admin Office, much less mayor of NYC.

If your initial instinct isn't to accept responsibility, but to blame the larger culture for your failures, then screw the Page-13, you're going the NJP route if the CMDCM can't knock some sense in to you via the DRB ... oh, wait ... we don't let Master Chiefs be Master Chiefs much anymore, and the Chief's Mess is probably terrified of an IG if they hurt your feelings ... so ... yea - maybe NJP. No, you are "one of those" types who might make a hotline call ... so ... ungh. Forget that scenario; I digress.

I have intentionally avoided blogging at all about the NYC mayoral campaign because I know most of you don't care, and the whole thing just depresses me.

It isn't so much that we have as the clear front runner a Communist fellow-traveler in Bill de Blasio. Just as a reminder, anyone who in 2013 cannot bring themselves to speak against the complete horror and evil of the Communist governments from the Soviet Union to Cuba to Nicaragua  to the blood soaked Communist rebel groups El Salvador and Colombia - well - they are just stupid or still willing to line people up against wall and be shot for reasons as simple as political debate.

Anyway ... it depresses me for something that may surprise my readers - I love NYC. Yes, I am an unabashed Southern partisan with right of center libertarian tendencies - but I love that city.

The reason are complicated and derive from my own weirdness I am sure, but let me try to help explain part of it for you. If you recall, my candidate for the Republican nomination in 2008 was Giuliani. If I had a bag of pixie dust, he would be in the White House right now ... but we don't live in that universe. I consider him one of the closest living examples of the best of Churchillism that we have in this country - he did something many thought was impossible; he brought NYC back from a nightmare of its own creation.

NYC if you define it broadly, had a population of 8,336,697 in July of 2012. It is a nation-sized entity. For reference, the population of Denmark is 5,580,500, Austria 8,443,000, and Sweden 9,482,900.

I first went to NYC when I was about 10. That would have been in the mid-1970s. In the blink of an eye, the kind of leftists like de Blasio took NYC from a flawed but highly functional Gotham of Rear Window to a dystopian Taxi Driver. My parents did not just take me to the nice places, they intentionally showed my little mind the very gritty parts. It still sticks in my head.

The cause of NYC's fall was one thing; leadership. Great societies can find themselves with poor or toxic leaders who can drag something great into a sewer in a flash. In the Navy we've seen it in commands and it scales up to the national level just as well. Also, a society in crisis and decay can be brought up by an outstanding leader; a Giuliani, a Churchill, a Cincinnatus.

When I brought my young children first to NYC a decade ago, it was amazing; a totally different place. I was able to go places and show things to my daughters that would have been unheard of when I was their age.

Decline isn't inevitable  and can be reversed. Success isn't granted or permanent either. It requires constant work, effort, and dedicated leadership. In a democratic form of government, ultimately the success or failure of a society derives from those leaders the people elect. So, NYC, it is your call and you will have no one but yourself to blame or praise. What does history, your history, tell us about putting someone like de Blasio in power?

Is that who you really want running things? If so, you are not only willfully ignorant of your own history, you are spoiled and once again - you will have to drag yourself out of a hole you dug for yourself at some point in the future after much misery, tears, treasure, and blood. Sad.