Mayor Wheeler Allows Portland to Burn Because In His Opinion It Had ‘Nothing to Lose’
By Bryan Preston
Like many of America’s mayors, Portland’s Mayor Ted Wheeler has been exposed as the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time. He is not cool under fire. He is not the man or woman you want in the foxhole with you when it gets real. He is not a leader. His judgement has proven to be far short of what’s needed in a time of crisis.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is a fool.
OPB reports that when Wheeler could have shown leadership that made a difference for Portland, well, he did. But it was poor leadership that’s allowing riots to destroy his city and its image.
In late July, Mayor Ted Wheeler had an idea he hoped would end the nightly clashes between protesters and police in Portland.
He texted Sonia Schmanski, a top aide, that he had a plan that was “high risk,” but he added that the city had “nothing to lose.”
“Nothing to lose.” Spoken like someone with no connection to reality. Also spoken like a career politician who has never run or managed anything outside the comfortable confines of government with its endless supplies of everyone else’s money.
Take a look as his history. Wheeler has never run a business he didn’t inherit because someone better than him built it. Never led in a local church. Never served in the military. He’s the perfect political trust-fund child. He has no relevant real-world experience but he believes he’s a good person who knows how bad everyone else is. He did nothing, knows nothing, inherited everything, and is watching passively as the city that made the mistake of empowering him burns around him.