John Koblin

Our new friends Why Tuesday? have posted their New Hampshire photostream on flickr. Here are media reporter John Koblin and columnist Choire Sicha, filing.

At the Observer offices, Why Tuesday? does not immediately seem to refer to election nights.

On Thursday morning, The Real Estate got a press release from Bob Knakal, the well-named half of Massey Knakal:

Please dispose of all the old headshots you have of our chairman, Robert Knakal, and use this one from here on out. We've seen his headshot from seven years ago pop up recently so please, use this one!

But before we say goodbye to the past, we wanted to run through his glorious aesthetic evolution, from the late 1990's through today.

- John Koblin and Max Abelson

Donald Trump Responds   To the Editor:    read more »

Donald Trump Responds   To the Editor:    read more »

• Information Age Triumph of the Day: MTA subway arrival signs are finally here. Never again will L Train riders have to suffer the indignity of wondering how long they'll have to wait before being whisked from Williamsburg to Manhattan. (Photo by John Koblin.) [AMNY, via Real Deal]
• One-time Mets firstbaseman Mo Vaughn will pay $21 million for the 385-unit apartment complex Noble Drew Ali Plaza in Brownsville, Brooklyn. One hopes the slugger is a better landlord than the infamous Abdur Rahman Farrakhan, one of the Village Voice's "10 Worst". [City Limits]
• Vietnam is the new chic flat-world winter hotspot, and there's a fresh $200-million-dollar, 500-acre resort to prove it. [Luxist]
• Last, but not least: Happy MLK Day. [Brooklyn Record]
- Max Abelson
• 0 comments

Separated at Mirth   To the Editor:    read more »

Separated at Mirth   To the Editor:    read more »

Separated at Mirth   To the Editor:    read more »

Jason Horowitz talks to Ned Lamont and his supporters about a campaign that hasn't gone exactly as they had hoped.

Choire Sicha and John Koblin report on Obamamania and how it seems a lot more real to Barack Obama's people than it does to Hillary Clinton's.

Azi Paybarah writes about Alan Hevesi's turmoil and the late campaign push he's getting from his remaining institutional supporters.

Joe Conason says that conservatives are trying to claim victory ahead of expected GOP losses, and that one very important major media outlet is buying it.

Jonathan Miller reports on the relationships between Robert Menendez and some hard-line anti-Castro activists.

Steve Kornacki explains why Joe Lieberman is going to be a major power broker in the Senate after Election Day.

And Richard Brookhiser doesn't think the Democrats, if elected, will be able to do any better in Iraq.

-- Josh Benson

Senator Clinton Is No Role Model   To the Editor:    read more »

Jason Horowitz's election coverage focuses on the new Andrew Cuomo, whose handlers managed to file off most of the rough parts in the course of his establishment-backed primary victory.

Steve Kornacki has a 2008-centered analysis of Hillary Clinton's 2006 re-election campaign, featuring a surprise cameo appearance from a certain former governor of Massachusetts.

And Kornacki gets back to his disturbingly deep roots in New Jersey politics, discussing Democratic panic over Bob Menendez's troubled campaign and the possibility that this year's Frank Lautenberg will be... Dick Codey.

Azi Paybarah and John Koblin have some amusing pieces of ground-level reporting with each of the candidates in the closing days of Yvette Clarke's primary victory in the 11th CD, with David Yassky getting jeered by a crowd, Carl Andrews getting mistaken for Al Sharpton and Chris Owens getting a little weird.

Matt Schuerman writes about Sheldon Silver's determination to stop George Pataki from getting anything built before he leaves office.

Joe Conason listens to the president's 9/11 speech and despairs.

Bonus feature: John Koblin plumbs the significance of Mets pitcher and secret American hero John Maine. Said teammate Steve Trachsel: "He's a really bad piece of shit."

-- Josh Benson

John Koblin hit the streets of Bed Stuy and Forte Greene, two neighborhoods in Brooklyn's 10th Congressional District. That's where incumbent Ed Towns is being challenged by City Councilman Charles Barron and Assemblyman Roger Green.

The people who spoke with Koblin in these two parts of the district had a wide range of issues for their next congressman.

-- Azi Paybarah

John Koblin caught this interesting remark from last night's AG's debate, where Sean Patrick Maloney switches who he thinks is the second-best candidate in the race.

"Well, I think Mark is the second best candidate but he's going to lose this race so it's hard for me to support him. So a few weeks ago, I'd say Mark, but tonight I'd say Andrew."

Update: This other quote from Maloney, I think, helps put his other remark in context. Maloney ties Green's electability directly to Green's negativity.

"I think you've taken the Democratic Party down to defeat more times than anybody in the last 30 years, and one of the reasons is because you don't give people something to vote for."

-- Azi Paybarah

John Koblin stuck around last night's town hall meeting and sends in this dispatch, which begs the question: Does Anthony Weiner like politicking a little too much?

While Yvette Clarke skipped away in the rain and John Murtha ran to catch a flight, Anthony Weiner brought it to the streets after last night's town hall meeting. For the dozens who saw it, the scene on 8th Avenue last night in Park Slope was one of those rare looks at a politician totally unfettered.

"You're all Chris Owens supporters," he said, "and I'm here to support Yvette Clarke -- who is going to win anyway."

The crowd grumbled.

"I'm just baiting you, I'm just baiting you, I'm just baiting you," he said with a giant grin.

He raised his voice - "what, do you just want to flog me!" - but he never lost his cool. In fact, once the audience got bigger, Weiner relished in the sport of it all by repeatedly teasing the audience. "I'm just kidding! Don't get a rise every time I bait you."

The debate lasted longer than the batteries in my digital camera, which died minutes after snapping a shot of Steve Buscemi, who strolled by to check out the scene. [after the jump]  read more »

-- Azi Paybarah

Our John Koblin couldn't keep himself off the streets Manhattan's 74th Assembly District in the Lower East Side, where freshman Assemblywoman Sylvia Friedman lost the New York Times endorsement to challenger Brian Kavanagh.

He is riding the Reform Albany message to the hilt. The message worked on 43rd Street, but what are people saying around East 12th Street? Koblin conducted some random interviews and has this dispatch:

I come home at night and I see all these rats and shit in the garbage cans here.  read more »

-- Christian Sordelete, 18, student at School of Visual Arts, interviewed outside his apt on 12th and A -- Azi Paybarah

In keeping with our ongoing obsession with the up-for-grabs 11th Congressional race, we sent our man John Koblin out into the district to talk to residents about what they hoped for out of their new member of Congress.

Here are a few randomly selected interviews that show, if nothing else, the radically different priorities of voters in different parts of the district.

I'd like to see the the new congressman stop the futility with the war in Iraq. On a more local level, I'd like to see the new congressmen become involved with city and state energy issues and social issues like Healthcare.

-- Brem Hyde, 39, landscape designer, corner of President and 7th Ave, Park Slope  read more »

John Koblin has this dispatch from Yvette Clarke's event with female supporters earlier today:

"If, from the first day of this race, I was a woman, then why wasn't this always apart of the conversation?" asked Yvette Clarke before a rally at City Hall celebrating her femaleness.

Good question.

We asked her campaign manager, Chris Lanier, the same thing. He said he planned on doing a rally like this for the last two months but just hadn't "gotten around to it."

Well, at least not until consultant Juda Engelmayer and the 5W reps got involved with the campaign.

"It's an obvious thing," said Mr. Engelmayer, who was standing just off to the side. "If the media doesn't see it, we help them find the story."

If only the media were there to see it. Due to an unexpected press gathering for Mayor Michael Bloomberg in midtown this afternoon, most of the City Hall press corps the campaign was eyeing for the rally didn't show. (There were a total of five reporters there for most of the event.)

"It's disappointing it had to turn out this way," Engelmayer said.

But it wasn't all bad. For the benefit of the couple of cameras in evidence, Yvette Clarke got her photo-op surrounded by a team of about 40 women supporters, including Betsy Gotbaum.  read more »

For the benefit of her small-but-captive audience, Clarke declared herself the "frontrunner" in this race - despite Carl Andrews' assessment - and said that she's the only "authentic" candidate for the district's female constituency.

When I asked Mr. Lanier if he thought his candidate was the frontrunner, he shook his head and said, "It's just too hard to tell."

-- Josh Benson

Talk about kicking a man when he's down.

John Koblin just called from Ditmars Boulevard to report that on her visit to some businesses in the affected area, Hillary Clinton said it was "a real mistake" by the governor not to ask for northwestern Queens to be declared a federal disaster area, which she and Chuck Schumer have both advocated.

"Unfortunately the governor doesn't agree," she said.

Accompanied by Carolyn Maloney, Mike Gianaris, Eric Gioia, Peter Vallone Jr., John Sabini and a mob of sweaty television and print reporters, she also called for an independent board to oversee the utility and a federal investigation into what went wrong.

It's worth noting that, like a number of the Democratic officials who have been most outspoken about the blackout, she didn't seem as inclined to criticize Mike Bloomberg.

When someone asked her about the mayor's kind words for Con Ed's leadership, she limited herself to the following statement: "I'm thinking for myself, and I'm very disappointed about how this whole matter was handled."

-- Josh Benson UPDATE: Pataki spokesperson Joanna Rose called to declare, not for the first time, that the governor can't make such a request without the mayor first doing so. Referring to Hillary Clinton's comments, Rose said, "She's obviously ignorant of the process. The local municipality would have to request such a designation to be made. The governor cannot unilaterally make that declaration."

Also in the Observer, Niall Stanage has an interview with Lebanon's highly depressed UN representative, who describes a confrontation with his Israeli counterpart and a seeming inability to communicate with John Bolton.

And John Koblin writes about the legacy of Tom Manton.

-- Josh Benson

The Times calls it fiery, the Post says they both come out swinging, the Daily News says Suozzi failed to land a KO and Newsday calls it a debate volley. (You can read those detailed analyses here, here, here and here. Host NY1's account is here.)

The summary, I think, is that there were genuine and not-insignificant differences on substance between the candidates on a number of issues, including - to name three more or less at random -- medical marijuana, the amount of state money for city public schools and the next leader of the MTA.

In terms of style, Suozzi handled himself well enough, attacking without appearing particularly shrill. But, to use the boxing metaphor so popular in debate coverage, a KO of Spitzer was never really on the cards.

John Koblin emailed over a few notes from Pace after the event on Suozzi's aggressive spin and a pre-debate rules controversy:

Paul Rivera, the new campaign manager for Suozzi, felt like his candidate wasn't combative enough. Even while offering direct attacks and sideswipes, Rivera said his candidate missed his chance to hurt his "filibustering" and "sweaty" opponent.

"Tom needed to be more assertive," he said. "I thought he was too respectful."

Suozzi's strength, says Rivera: "His humor. He showed the people that he was a regular guy and not too hard and aggressive."

Suozzi also made an appearance to send two messages: One, he wants more debates ("After the debate ended, I went up to Eliot and asked, 'Wanna do it again? Wanna do it again?' He said, 'See you later.'"); two, to give some airtime about the "notes" incident before the debate.

Suozzi said he had a binder of notes up on the dais before the debate, which Mr. Spitzer said broke the rules. Portraying Mr. Spitzer as raving and mad, Suozzi said, "He's got a bad temper. I never saw him that angry before."

On the letter of the law, though, it seems Spitzer was right. An email dated last Friday from Jeremy Bitz of NY1 sent to the Spitzer Campaign, cites "bob" (as in View image">Bob Hardt) explaining the rules: "Can candidates bring notes? From bob, I believe you'll follow standard practice and provide pen/paper and not allow notes. As we said in the invite, these ground rules are non-negotiable."

Meanwhile, Christine Anderson, spokeswoman for Mr. Spitzer, said Mr. Suozzi came off as "shrill" and "too hostile." And even though Mr. Spitzer at times seemed to be reaching hard to bat away his opponent's lashings, she the debate "didn't change the dial" on this race.

-- Josh Benson