What's Wrong With You, Anthony?

 

Reid Pillifant took a look at Weiner at the end of this race and concluded that Weiner is worse off now than before he started: 

Weiner has tried to frame his endurance and impressive imperviousness to embarrassment as a sign of the mettle needed to run the city.

But unless he dramatically outperforms the polls on Tuesday, Weiner will end the campaign worse off than when he started.

When he entered the race, the polls seemed at least to show that the public's disapproval of his actions was matched by significant support for his efforts to overcome them by running for office—44 percent held a favorable opinion of him, against 44 percent unfavorable.

That's all over now. A New York Times-Siena poll last month found that just 24 percent of respondents had a favorable view of Weiner, compared to 66 percent who said they viewed him unfavorably.

In a Quinnipiac poll released last week, 44 percent of voters said they wouldn't vote for Weiner "under any circumstances," up from 28 percent in late July.

Worse yet, the fallout during his campaign has widened to include his wife, Huma Abedin, the longtime Hillary Clinton aide whose effort to salvage the campaign with an emotional public plea was ineffective and possibly harmful to her formerly pristine public image.

Weiner's actions actually prompted some Clinton aides to air their grievances about him in a brutal New York Times story, and later shot back when Weiner joked about knowing his wife's role in Clinton's future presidential campaign.

“We have absolutely no clue what he was talking about,” spokesman Nick Merrill told Politico. “Maybe his campaign does. Doubt it though.”

Abedin, who had previously made a few tentative public appearances with Weiner, hasn't been seen since she stood beside him at that post-scandal press conference in July.

And Weiner, who used to insist she would be back on the trail soon, is now conspicuously noncommittal.

"Do you think Huma will come out on the campaign trail between now and election day? Will she be by your side on election night?" asked Guthrie on "Meet the Press."

"I don't know," Weiner said. "I'm walking a fine line. You have, as a reporter, you have an appetite for the Huma side of the story. I want to talk about issues important to the middle class and the issues that citizens care about."

Weiner said she had paid an "unfair" price.

"I don't think she did anything wrong," he said. "I mean, her crime is standing at my side and helping me get through it. That's her crime."

What price did Weiner pay to run this campaign?

More public humiliation for himself.

More public humiliation for his wife.

Perhaps even a conflict between himself and his wife that ends this marriage in the near future (notice Huma hasn't been seen in quite some time with Weiner.)

And for what?

Attention?

Lawrence O'Donnell is a jerk, but he has a point:

What is wrong with Weiner that he chose to run again knowing that he has misled the public and the press about when he stopped sexting strangers on the Internet?

Why can't he envision a life outside of politics?

What is he missing inside himself that he craves attention this much that he is willing to put himself and his family through these public humiliations?

What is wrong with Anthony Weiner?

This would be a Greek Tragedy if it wasn't such a farce.