NYC Mayor Election 2013: Don't Be So Hard On Anthony Weiner

When the nation hears the name Anthony Weiner, most probably remember the wild coverage of his sexting debacle, which was comically dubbed the “Weinergate scandal.” After he got through with sending sexually suggestive photos and messages to women and resigned from Congress, Weiner went off the radar for a while only to make a surprising turn around.                     

The former Congressman may have made a mistake that tarnished his reputation but this did not dissuade Weiner from trying to continue his career in politics. In late May of this year, when Anthony Weiner announced his candidacy for the New York City mayoral election, apologized for his past misdoings, and asked for a second chance.                                  

Now, according to a Wall Street Journal-NBC New York-Marist poll, Weiner stands as the top contender for the the Democratic nomination with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn trailing behind by five points.                                                                                                  

Though this poll shows that Weiner is being received favorably by New Yorkers, as expected, some are less than pleased with the prospect of him becoming mayor. Twitter users and bloggers are chiming in on their disapproval of Weiner due to his past actions.

Some remain upset about his comeback after the scandal due to the fact that the women involved have expressed that they have not yet recovered and still face criticism from their peers and media. The fact that these women are still harassed is certainly unfair and news outlets perhaps should not have made as big a spectacle of the women involved as they did. However, the aggressive coverage the women received cannot be blamed entirely on Weiner who, of course, had no control over what the media exposed. It appears that mistakes were made and now the public simply does not want to let the issue go.                                                                                    

If Weiner were not a politician, this sexting scandal would not have become news and it would have been a problem that he and his wife Huma would have to sort out privately between each other. However, when one is in the public eye, there is no such thing as true privacy and every move one makes is fair game for public criticism.                              

The people who were hurt in this situation were ultimately Weiner, the women involved, and his wife, who he betrayed. Overall, it is a sad situation for all parties connected to this scandal and while Weiner demonstrated a serious lack in judgement, if he has truly learned from his unscrupulous past and his wife has completely forgiven him, he must be cut at least some slack.                

Whether he is elected as mayor or not is completely up to New York City and citizens hopefully will elect the best candidate. Though constituents do not have to vote for him if for whatever reason they believe he is unfit for the position, if he has really changed, Weiner and the women actively involved in the sexting scandal do not deserve to be continuously taunted for their past actions because after all, everyone makes mistakes.