POLL: Should Anthony Weiner Exit The Mayoral Race?

There has been a media parade in recent days calling for Anthony Weiner to quit running for mayor. Ever since the ‘Carlos Danger’ revelations become public, a slew of media sources have been speculating and recommending that Weiner exit the race but thus far, Weiner has remained defiant.

A New York Times report listed several prominent national figures calling for Weiner to leave the race including top Obama aide David Axelrod:

“At this point, it’s absurd,” David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Obama, said during an appearance on “Meet the Press” on NBC, which devoted a segment to Mr. Weiner’s scandal between reports on the American economy and tumult in Egypt.

“He is not going to be the next mayor of New York; he is wasting time and space,” added Mr. Axelrod, who had no qualms about his animus toward Mr. Weiner. “It’s time for him to go away and let New York have its mayor’s race.”

Polls have also showed that Weiner’s support has sunk, dropping him to fourth place. Even Sydney Leathers, the woman Weiner had been ‘sexting’ with, expressed her thoughts that Weiner is unqualified to be mayor, albeit very obnoxiously.

“As funny as it would be to have a mayor Carlos Danger,” Leathers told Howard Stern, “I think he’s a little to busy jacking off to do anything for the city.”

Still, in the end, news editors, prominent national political leaders and even Sydney Leathers, an Indiana resident, do not get to decide if Weiner should be mayor. That is a right reserved for the people of New York, and it still remains to be seen where they stand. And when Weiner resigned from Congress, he did it at the behest of his colleagues and media voices – not those of his constituents, who likely would have reelected him despite the scandal.

That is why we are putting up a modest poll asking you, actual New Yorkers, whether or not Weiner should quit the race.

I’ll get the discussion rolling by letting you know how I voted. I think Weiner should stay in. Weiner has done nothing illegal and his wife, Huma Abedin, has forgiven him. And on a more technical note, I have heard worse stories of marital indiscretion in real life and in the world of politics. There are things about this case we may never know. Maybe Weiner’s wife always knew of Weiner’s predilection for phone and internet sex and simply didn’t care. There is no story or evidence that Weiner ever actually cheated on her. Are we really going to judge a man for the way he ‘gets off’ especially when his wife, who is the only person it should really concern, has excused him?

The list of politicians throughout American history who have betrayed their wives in one way or another is practically endless. Some of the best presidents in our history have cheated on their wives while some of the worst have remained faithful. In the end, has all the hysteria over the private sex lives of politicians done anything but sell tabloids, newspapers and give professional bloviators another opportunity to stand on soap boxes and spout hypocritical nonsense over the sanctity of god knows what?

Sex isn’t going away, unless the human race does, and by extension, politicians are never going away. I personally find it ridiculous how the Weiner ‘scandal’ has gotten so much attention, especially when New York state politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are swimming in accusations of corruption and graft. What do you think?