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Our Mayor on the national stage

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NPR listeners this evening will be treated to a nice long interview with our own mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. Overall, he was pretty good, talking about moving people out of poverty. We love it when politicians pay attention to real problems (it's so rare!) and when NPR got all tough-question-y, it sounded halfhearted.

If we were his political advisors, we'd point out that he probably lost his audience when he slid into bureaucrat-speak, and that he could put a little more energy into the conversation. A solid B+: respectable, but room for improvement.

Our local boy continues to make good next week. After Bush's State of the Union on Tuesday, the Democrats will broadcast two responses: one in English, by Virginia Governor Tim Kaine, and one in Spanish, by, that's right, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. It's a very high-profile gig for a mayor. Good going, Antonio!

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But we hope he doesn't get distracted by all that national media. We're happy to see him on the national stage, but we want him to come back home. Mayor Villaraigosa still has a nice ring to it, right?

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