I see former New York Mayor Ed Koch has died. Not having lived in New York during his terms in office, I have no particular feelings that he was a good mayor or a bad mayor…but he certainly was a colorful, interesting mayor. You know the old joke that goes, "Where's the most dangerous place in the world? Answer: Anywhere between [Name of Person] and a camera"? I've heard that joke with a lot of names inserted but the first and most prevalent was Ed Koch.
But I kinda respected Ed Koch…for sheer honesty much of the time. I don't think he or any politician could be honest all the time — not and get elected. But Koch was sometimes delightfully unfiltered and blunt. The night he lost his bid for a fourth term, a reporter asked him to what he attributed his defeat. His answer went something like this…
I could give you all sorts of answers having to do with the changing demographics of the state and with people blaming the city for some of the labor unrest and strikes…and there might be some truth to some of that. But the real answer is that sometimes, after a while, the public just gets sick of your face.
So true, so true.