Mayor Bill de Blasio needs to court Iowa farmers, Texas truckers and Washington software developers if he wants to win the presidency — but he can’t even get the guy who makes his breakfast to back him.
“He’s a real nice person, but he’s delusional!” said Frank Apergis, manager at The Mansion, a diner near Gracie Mansion that is popular with politicos and where Hizzoner drops in for an omelet every few weeks.
“He can’t even focus on things here. Now he’s gonna run for president? Delusional!” said Apergis, 43. “This will be his excuse for not doing his job the rest of his time here.”
Even a worker at the mayor’s favorite eatery, Park Slope’s Bar Toto, said de Blasio doesn’t stand a chance.
“He’s not that popular in New York. How’s he going to make it on a national level — by being the bluest mayor in the bluest city in America? What does blue-collar America think of a guy like this?” the worker said. “I have nothing against the guy. But I just don’t see it.”
But one member of Hizzoner’s gym saw a silver lining to de Blasio’s campaigning.
“Maybe there’s a chance, if he’s running for president, he won’t be at the gym every day with his security goons in the lobby,” Marcus Baram, 51, a journalist, said at the Park Slope YMCA.
Harold Kahn, 85, offered a more blunt assessment as he strolled in Carl Schurz Park in the shadow of Gracie Mansion.
“He’s wasting his time!” Kahn said. “He’s wasting our time!”