But if you're Bill de Blasio, trying to become the first Democrat to be elected Mayor of New York since 1989, you have to be feeling pretty good tonight. Not that he wouldn't get a ration of fallout if he started measuring for curtains at Gracie Mansion, but the numbers in the latest Quinnipiac University Poll show de Blasio with an enormous lead over his Republican opponent Joe Lhota. The raw number is 66 to 25 percent. But it's the breakdown of demographics that's the most daunting if you're the Lhota campaign.
De Blasio leads 52-40 among white voters, 90-3 among black voters, 68-18 percent among Hispanic voters, 63-29 among men and 69-21 among women.
No shocker, Lhota leads among Republicans, 79-15, but de Blasio leads among Dems 81-11, and given that the GOP is outnumbered 6-1 in New York City, the Dems weigh heavier. Among independents, de Blasio leads 53-36.
And perhaps most telling, the poll shows voters say, by a margin of 61-30 percent, that "the city needs to take a new direction from Mike Bloomberg."
Perhaps that's why the Mayor has been hesitant to talk about what his legacy might be in these last 100 days in office.
We'll have the latest on the race for Mayor, at 11.
Also at 11, so all those conservative Cardinals who voted for the Jesuit from Argentina to become Pope – wonder what they're thinking tonight? Pope Francis - in an interview with La Civilta Cattolica, the Italian Jesuit journal – says that the Catholic Church's moral structure might "fall like a house of cards" if it keeps blasting away about gays, contraception and abortion. He called for the church to make itself a more "merciful, welcoming place for all."
The pontiff, laying out his vision for a church that is 180-degrees from his two most recent predecessors, as he took exception with the Church's dogmatic teachings.
"The church's pastoral ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently," said the Pope. "We have to find a new balance; otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the Gospel."
Wow.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Meteorologist Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast, and Rob Powers with the night's sports, including the Yankees long-shot wild-card bid for the playoffs. I hope you can join Sade Baderinwa and me, tonight at 11.
Subscribe to my page on Facebook at facebook.com/billritter.wabc.
Follow my tweets at www.twitter.com/billritter7.
