Metro

Spitzer gets lucky

Ever since Eliot Spitzer jumped into the city comptroller race, I’ve had some sympathy for Scott Stringer. The Manhattan borough president is authentically genial and self-effacing, rare qualities in the political class.

Yet as I watched the two men face off in a debate, I felt something else: anger. Stringer’s lumpy presentation and tired recitation of canned talking points made me want to grab him by the lapels and give him a good shake.

That might have changed the dynamic of the race. Stringer’s hapless performance certainly didn’t.

Face it, New York: Spitzer is headed for victory.

Yes, yes, I know, the 17 days left in the campaign amounts to a lifetime in politics. Anything can happen.

Except that’s not true. The one thing that can’t happen is that Stringer can’t beat Spitzer. He’s trying, but he’s walking while Spitzer is running.

Only Spitzer can beat Spitzer. History proves he’s certainly capable of that, but Stringer shows no evidence he can win unless Client No. 9 implodes. Indeed, Stringer’s bizarre debate offer to let Spitzer help him baby-sit his children looked like a white flag of surrender.

Blame it on the bankrupt Democratic Party. As it has in the mayoral primary, the party has produced an unappealing choice in the comptroller race. But while the GOP mayoral nominee has a shot in the general election, the winner of the Dem primary will be the next comptroller.

There’s no reason to think the polls are wrong when they say it’s shaping up as Spitzer by a landslide. He’s a human wrecking ball, but he also happens to be a pretty good campaigner. He’s lean and hungry and uninhibited by facts or truth. Remember, he did win three statewide elections, which gives him a big advantage in name recognition.

The voters who turn out on Sept. 10 will be focused on the mayoral primary. When they look down the ballot at other races, Spitzer will be the name they know best.

Thanks to his family wealth, he’s got money to burn, and his clever TV ads are pulling off a “Manchurian Candidate” trick of creating false memories. The claim that he’s an independent who stood up for the little guy is pure fiction, but he says it so often that he probably believes it now.

Then there’s that syrupy voice-over in one ad that dares to say, “The people of this city are about to welcome back an old friend.”

You mean the “old friend” who dumped us for a hooker his daughter’s age?

Or the “old friend” who used police to spy on a rival, then lied when he got caught?

Or the “old friend” who broke every promise he made and left Albany in shambles?

Yeah, that’s him. That’s the guy.

I’ve known Spitzer for nearly 20 years, and I remember the first time I caught him in a lie. It involved the financing of his first two campaigns for attorney general, in 1994 and 1998.

When he finally ’fessed up that his father was paying the bills, I said, “Eliot, you lied.” Without missing a beat, he said, “I had to.” He claimed that his father insisted his role be kept secret.

Very touching, except it was a clear violation of election laws. Spitzer later called those laws “porous,” a sign of things to come.

He could have been indicted then, but instead became the state’s chief law-enforcement officer. He could have been indicted in 2008 for prostitution, but saved his skin by giving up the Governor’s Office.

It is also worth remembering that, after only 14 months in office, he had zero friends in Albany or anywhere else. One poll showed him with only 23 percent support — and that was before Hookergate. Even his closest aides had abandoned him, feeling betrayed by his back-stabbing schemes and volcanic temper tantrums.

It is possible that Spitzer is a changed man, but I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, somebody please wake Scott Stringer.

Manning begs for ‘change’

It lacks the buzz of the “Call me Ishmael” opening of “Moby-Dick,” but the claim by the traitor formerly known as Bradley Manning that “I am Chelsea” is still remarkable.

After being sentenced to 35 years in a military prison for turning over 700,000 secret documents to WikiLeaks, Manning, a former Army private, declared that “I am a female.”

He said he wants “to begin hormone therapy” and that “I hope that you will support me in this transition.”

The Army insists taxpayers won’t be on the hook, but Bradley could become Chelsea if his supporters pony up. They include the American Civil Liberties Union, which vows to fight for his “constitutional” right to transgender treatment.

Then there’s The Associated Press, which said his sentence “fired up the long-running debate about whether Manning was a whistleblower or a traitor.”

Actually, no. That debate was settled with his conviction.

Maybe The New York Times will fund the treatment. It was a partner with WikiLeaks in publicizing the stolen documents, and its editorial page called Manning’s sentence “excessive.”

So here’s a chance for the Times to put its money behind its convictions. Whatever the price, it’s a cheap penalty for helping a thief and traitor.

When road menaces collide

The Midtown bicycle-taxi accident that severed the leg of a British tourist reveals two of the maniacs causing chaos on city streets and the failure of officials to stop them until the tragedy.

Cabby Mohammed Faysal Himon injured a passenger in an earlier crash, had three moving violations and seven points on his license. Taxi officials conceded he shouldn’t have been driving but said his point total “was not noticed.” Why not?

Bike messenger Kenneth Olivo is also a menace. His rap sheet includes 22 arrests, and he allegedly threatened to behead a man and kill his family. Why wasn’t he in jail?

Don’t bother hoping City Hall sees the crash as a wake-up call. The zealots turning the streets into a Third World muddle are never accountable for the results of their madness. Only the innocent suffer.

Our irrelevant president

The calendar says President Obama has over three years left in the White House, but he is already irrelevant in much of the world. From Russia to China to Egypt, Iran and Syria, allies and adversaries alike are tuning him out. They regard both his threats and his promises as hollow.

Support at home is shrinking, too. Gallup says approval for his handling of the economy sank to 35 percent and ObamaCare grows ever more unpopular.

He still can count on his party’s control of the Senate, but next year’s election could change that.

No wonder the first family got a second dog. Every president needs a friend and Bo probably got tired of him, too.