Local note

America's Next Top Mayor--watch them disappear.

New York's United Federation of Teachers has made an endorsement in the mayoral race for the first time since 1989, of William Thompson, the personable, knowledgeable Democrat who allegedly ran for mayor in 2009. I say "allegedly" because as far as I'm concerned he didn't run; he strolled for mayor, maybe, or ambled.

Thompson was one of the worst campaigners ever. Bloomberg's deep nastiness was beginning to show, and his bid for a third term was barely legal, and Democrats should have come much closer to winning than they did. I really have a hard time understanding the UFT's move. The Democratic field is extremely crowded, with a presumptive front-runner in King Michael's loyally postpartisan chancellor (Christine Quinn), a celebrity dick joke (Anthony Weiner), and at least three genuine progressives, two of whom (John Liu and Bill DeBlasio) are strong campaigners. It's really time to start uniting around one of these two.

In 2009 the UFT refused to endorse Thompson:

"It's a different time, and this union now is in a different place," Mulgrew said.

Yeah, last time Thompson seemed to have a chance of winning.