Reading the dismal polls on Mayor Adrian Fenty in The Washington Post, we couldn't help but think of two other politicians.
First, we thought of former Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon (the name changed to Sharon Pratt Kelly and then later to just Sharon Pratt). We'll get to the second name a bit later.
Pratt was a reformer who swept into the mayor's office after her 1990 campaign promise to "clean house." And her slogan was a rousing "Yes, We Can!" Sound familiar?
She won decisively, and the people cheered as she took office in January 1991.
Less than four years later, in the 1994 campaign primary, she lost decisively to Marion Barry, netting a measly 13 percent of the vote.
As mayor, Pratt was a textbook example of good intentions melting in the heat of actually governing. At one citywide address when she was discussing youth violence, the weary mayor admitted in her speech she "didn't have a clue" how difficult the issue proved to be.
Barry was still fresh from his misdemeanor prison sentence and his election in 1992 as the Ward 8 council member. In the mayor's race, he battered Kelly on crime, lousy schools and city services -- the exact same things she had vowed to attack.
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As Mayor Fenty pores over the new poll results, maybe his mind will wander back to Pratt. Reformers fly high and fall fast if the voters sense they've failed.
Of course, 2010 is far different. The Post poll essentially found that the city is on the right course to improvement; the voters just don't like the arrogant young man they elected in 2006.
And they don't care much for Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, whose reformist zeal has singed too many people needlessly.
"His arrogance is only exceeded by hers," one person familiar with the city's political landscape told the Notebook. The source wants the mayor to be reelected.
The Washington City Paper column Loose Lips simply refers to the mayor as a jerk.
We'll see whether Fenty and Rhee use the statistical evidence in the poll as reason to curb their contempt for those who don't agree with them. At least in public.
It's not too late, but it is late.
The good news for Fenty is that The Post poll shows he still has strong support in key wards that decide elections, though even that support is not on an upward trend.
And Fenty is blessed with vacillating potential opponents.
Wealthy developer R. Donahue Peebles was moments from getting in the race but stayed out for family reasons, he said, and now is hinting he might do it after all. As we said a few weeks ago, waffles are for breakfast, not campaigns.
Council Chairman Vincent Gray clearly wants to be mayor but won't declare his candidacy or say why he's waiting. We've reported that he could get into the campaign in late spring if Fenty remains on his downward path. Maybe that's all Gray is doing -- letting Fenty have the field to himself to better highlight the mayor's failings.
But many political operatives in and out of government believe Gray will not run for mayor unless support for Fenty truly collapses.
Gray actually likes being council chairman. He's proud of his role there. He is also aware that if he doesn't run for reelection, the council in a critical budget year will be riddled with political intrigue as two or three or more of the council members seek the chairmanship.
As we read The Post polls, the other name that came to mind is President Barack Obama. It seems Fenty is the mirror opposite of the president.
Obama remains personally popular and well-liked while his policies and ideas flail and founder. Fenty actually is presiding over an improving city, but he is personally disliked.
As we've noted before, the mayor loves to compare himself to other "big city" mayors like Michael Bloomberg in New York. We suggest that Fenty would benefit from another trip to the Big Apple. He would see how Bloomberg narrowly avoided defeat last year and has vowed to be a more inclusive mayor, particularly with council members who complained he left them out of almost every important decision.
Sound familiar?
Fenty knew what he was doing in 2006. The stars were aligned for him. Now, as an embattled incumbent, he has to remember who the friendly, concerned 2006 guy was and ask himself, "Where in the hell did he go?"
• No soup for you.
We're hoping that no one was surprised when President Obama did not mention D.C. voting rights in his State of the Union speech. What did you expect?
DC Vote, the organization that says it gathered 41,000 signatures to urge Obama to say something, predictably said it was disappointed but would keep working on its elusive goal.
DC Vote had mailed the petition signatures to the White House. Maybe the group would have gotten more attention if the members took the 41,000 signatures and dumped them on the White House lawn.
Somebody would be charged with something, but you know the signatures would have made big news.
That's the problem with the voting rights struggle. It's not really a struggle. It's a lobbying campaign. Everyone is oh, so polite.
Chairman Gray and Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans wrote a letter to the president inviting him to attend a reception in the John A. Wilson Building. The city leaders got back a form reply.
The Notebook has an idea. Why not open a Five Guys burger joint on the ground floor of the Wilson Building? The president would come running.
