Grading Anthony Weiner’s Audition As A TV Pundit

Anthony Weiner went on NY1’s Road To City Hall Tuesday night, where the former mayoral candidate sat alongside Mark Green, former public advocate, and Alfonse D’Amato, former senator, for the show’s political analysis segment, “WiseGuys.”

We’ll say this: it went a lot better than his appearance on MSNBC. How much better, you ask? We kept score.

On losing the nomination

“Look there is this level of discontent and concern out there that Bill de Blasio tapped into–he won, I lost.” {+1 for being a good sport, +1 uniting behind the party’s candidate}

On what voters want

“They want to see what you’re going to do. Now, maybe I did too much by having 125 of them, a couple books, {-1 for thinking that was his biggest problem} but, but de Blasio he does have a concrete plan to fund early childhood education. He laid it out and advertised and talked about it.”

On the realities of being mayor

“You want to show people as mayor what you’re going to fight for everyday and not compromise on–even though you probably will.” {+1 for keeping it real}

On Christine Quinn

“She probably should have, at some point, said, you know what? That term limits thing, maybe I shouldn’t have done it.” {-1 for giving a candidate who finished better in the primary advice on running her campaign}

“I don’t know what the answer is–I’m not good at giving out [advice to] my own campaign, apparently, let alone other people’s {+2}–but I do think that it became problematic that there wasn’t anyone who truly felt okay, she’s mine and here’s why.”

On Joe Lhota

“His biggest problem is that he doesn’t know if this campaign should be a proof point on his single best thing on his resume, according to him, which is his relationship with Giuliani. If this becomes referendum on Giuliani then he loses, and if it doesn’t become a referendum on Giuliani then why is he running? {+1, good point} It’s like, he is, he’s in a difficult spot.”

On lessons learned from the campaign

“The other lesson we learned? When people say public advocate is good for nothing, it’s good for one thing–becoming the nominee for your party.” {-3 for not being very good at learning lessons}

If you tally it all up–factoring in points docked throughout the segment for not engaging with the other panelists–Weiner had a pretty decent showing. And it wasn’t physically painful watching him, which was a nice change from the campaign.