A Different Transportation Metaphor for Spitzer

James Klurfield writes in this morning’s Newsday, “Maybe next time Gov. Eliot Spitzer would be well advised to compare himself to The Little Engine That Could instead of a steamroller.”

Klurfield takes a softer approach to Spitzer’s recent setbacks in the budget negotiations, arguing that Spitzer’s real failure was one of expectations, not substance.

He argues:

Like it or not, politics is often as much a game of perceptions as a matter of reality. Spitzer set an impossibly high bar for himself, and that's what he is being measured against. You can admire his ambition and his determination, but he's got a way to go in political savvy...No doubt Spitzer has learned something about the limits of his power. Hence my suggestion that he trade the steamroller analogy for The Little Engine That Could. Then we all might have a greater appreciation of how hard it is to chug up the mountain.