Let's talk Strategy

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7M9Y7Vcg4w&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffere9986&utm_medium=twitter] Not much to say about the video per se, but I thought this video was a good MacGuffin to talk about the comptroller race.

There's been a lot of talk about Spitzer coming back into politics. Most of it centered around the question of could Spitzer overcome his prostitution scandal. Missed in that conversation or maybe forgotten (mostly) is that Spitzer was a pretty awful governor before he resigned. I wonder if the prostitution scandal didn't actually save Spitzer's reputation.  Is it easier to rebound from seeing a prostitute or being a horrible governor?

Well, since Scott Stringer thought it was his his civic duty to remind people that Spitzer's second act is really the same as his first -- claiming to be a reformer then letting everyone down).

Strategically this is probably the best way to go, smarter than pounding Spitzer on the prostitution scandal, which could seem less than honroable and everyone already knows about.

Now this is a video rather than an ad, but it makes the point, pretty straightforwardly. I found the quotes powerful and the press conference scene especially good.

This is Stringer's best shot to take down Spitzer, and to the extend that it starts a conversation that subverts Spitzer's appeal it will be successful. But, I wonder if people see two Spitzer's one the arrogant failed governor who failed and the other a gunslinging Attorney General who kept them safe from the predators of Wall Street and their kind.

Is making the race a referendum on Spitzer enough? I'm not sure. I think Spitzer's story is too strong in voters' minds. I think Stringer still needs to sell himself, this needs to be a choice for voters.