11-24-2014, 01:47 AM
rjmacs wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
I have a lot of respect for his civil rights activism as a younger man.
But it's easy to make the case that DC would have been much better off if he'd never become mayor. It's not like he's the only person who wanted the job.
Make the case, LD. Who would have made a better mayor when he was running? You lived here - who did you support?
By the time I moved to DC, Barry had already been elected to two terms and was an entrenched institution. The depth of corruption was just beginning to show - not to mention his severe drug and alcohol addictions and their impact on his ability to work. It's more than a bit ironic that at a time when the crack cocaine epidemic made DC the "murder capital" of the country, the mayor was partaking himself. It wasn't just the FBI sting, that was the tip of the iceberg, this man had a very serious problem and had no business representing such an important city. I hardly see how the two men (I think it was two) he defeated for the Democratic nomination in '78 could have been worse.