Newt Blows Off the NYC Vote

The great gas-passing orifice erupts:

Speaking in Las Vegas ahead of the Nevada caucus, a contest he is sure to lose, Gingrich attacked “elites” in Manhattan who live in high rises and “ride the subway.”

Oh, I so hope Newt stays in the race until the very bitter end. Who else would say anything this stupid? Well, OK, Rick Santorum. And Mittens. But let’s go on …

It must be beyond perplexing to a native New Yorker that anyone would conflate elitism with subway riding. The truly elite don’t take the subways; they have chauffeurs. The exception is Mayor Bloomberg, who famously takes the subway to work to show that he’s a man of the people. However, according to Gothamist, Hizzoner is picked up at his Upper East Side townhome and rides 22 blocks in a chaffeur-driven Chevy Suburban to the 59th Street and Lexington station, and he catches the subway (I assume the downtown express train to Borough Hall) from there.

I think the real slam here is to paint all of New York City as somehow outside America (I guess 9/11 really is forgotten). It’s a mysterious, intimidating place where people use alien words like “bodega.” And except for the truly elite, the New York City subways may be one of the few places in America where people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds and nearly all economic circumstances mingle together as equals. Is that what’s really bothering you, Newt?