Charlie Rangel Says Thompson Supporters Having Strategy Meeting To See Where Thompson Campaign Goes Now

With the list of Democratic establishment figures and unions supporting Bill de Blasio for mayor getting longer and longer, Bill Thompson isn't going to get too much help if he decides to stay in the race and try and force a runoff.

So far, Lew Fidler is still supporting him, telling waffling Thompson supporters to "grow a pair" and get back on the Thompson bandwagon.

But Thompson supporter Charlie Rangel sounded a little more circumspect about what will happen with Thompson going forward:

Rep. Charlie Rangel said he'll attend a "strategy meeting" with Bill Thompson supporters this evening, to consider options for the second-place candidate.

"We're meeting tonight with all the Bill Thompson supporters and labor, and we have to see where the hell did Bill Thompson get those votes that no one was able to expect him to get in the Bloomberg-Thompson election," said Rep. Charlie Rangel, in a phone interview from Washington this morning. "Because clearly on paper, if indeed the final count means that Bill [de Blasio] falls below the 40 percent, then we have to make certain that we get a majority of votes. So we're having a strategy meeting tonight in New York."

Dunno how you read those comment,s but I read them this way - unless Thompson's backers know he can beat de Blasio in a runoff, that the possibility for those voters going to Thompson in a runoff exists, then they're not backing him to force one.

Which is another way of saying they're not backing Thompson to force a runoff, because we know those votes don't exist.

De Blaiso won in every demographic category imaginable - including with black voters.

Rangel knows Thompson doesn't have a chance:

Asked if he was surprised by de Blasio's performance among black voters, Rangel said, "Not after I saw that commercial for de Blasio with his son."

I asked Rangel if he thought the ad, which is narrated by de Blasio's 16-year-old son, Dante, was really that effective.

"Effective? Hell, it was mind-blowing," he said. "That was the kid that they're looking for in stop-and-search. That is him! Big goddam afro, black kid, he's the one! In other words, the candidate's son." He let out a laugh.

"And then the mayor, I don't know--he was so beautiful, in calling Bill de Blasio a racist for exposing his family," he said. "I mean, by having your family, your biracial family, come forward is racist, because they see that you're really Americans, and we don't have time for that, either you're Jewish or Christian or black or white, I don't know."

"But I know one thing, de Blasio handled these things so beautifully well, I can understand how people felt very comfortable endorsing him," Rangel said.

I bet they pull the plug on this thing tomorrow.

Monday latest.

But if they're having this meeting tonight, tomorrow might be the day.