Freeing India from colonial rule, inventing the light bulb and . . . allowing people to pee in public.
A cocky Mayor de Blasio placed his ideas and ambitions up there with the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Thomas Edison in a bravado-filled new interview — also claiming Hillary Clinton would have won if she’d just taken his advice.
“Every time someone tries something and it doesn’t work, it invalidates anything else they might do going forward? Tell Thomas Edison that, and Henry Ford, tell Mahatma Gandhi,” Hizzoner, who last year decriminalized public urination, told Politico while defending his failure to become a progressive national leader.
“I mean how many people fell on their faces along the way trying things, experimenting with things, had setbacks? There’s no leader who hasn’t had setbacks.”
De Blasio later clarified that he is a “speck on the universe” compared to those three men — but also claimed that Clinton’s campaign failed after refusing to adopt his progressive vision.
“I was telling them they needed to have a clear progressive populist message, and they had to believe it. And if they had, they would have won. I stand by that,” the mayor said in the podcast interview.
Political pundits scoffed at the mayor’s arrogance.
“If Hillary had listened to him, she’s still unlikely to have been elected president. Second, he’s no Gandhi,” veteran Democratic consultant Hank Sheinkopf said.
“He just has second inauguration euphoria, caused by a belief that somehow he is now the great giant slayer. But Trump is still in the White House, Republicans are still in control in the House and Senate, and Mayor de Blasio is still a voice that doesn’t resonate in a lot of New York state, let alone the rest of country.”
De Blasio said the reason he still hasn’t been embraced at a national level is because Bernie Sanders’ campaign stole his thunder by taking up the progressive agenda.
“Within months, Bernie became the voice for so many of those ideas so effectively, and I’m thrilled with that,” he said, saying they are both “movement builders” — as are Edison, Ford and Gandhi.
Asked why he isn’t as widely lauded as is Republican/independent predecessor Mike Bloomberg, de Blasio claimed it’s because he hasn’t spent enough money on self-promotion.
“American culture deifies the wealthy, and he was one of the richest people in the world . . . Obviously, he had tremendous resources that he could use for self-promotion, and he did,” said de Blasio, who once recruited Broadway stars to literally sing his praises in a taxpayer-funded video.
He also pointed the finger at the “mainstream media,” saying some of the things he “stands for” conflict with the interests of media owners.
But people say they’ve heard de Blasio loud and clear — they just don’t care.
One person who saw him lecturing other leaders at the Conference of Mayors in New Orleans last year told Politico the audience was not impressed.
“It’s fair to say that there was eye-rolling. It’s fair to say that there was frustration,” the anonymous witness said.
Meanwhile, during de Blasio’s recent visit to Des Moines, Iowa, to attend a fund-raiser for the liberal advocacy group Progress Iowa, his attempt to auction off his own tie fell embarrassingly flat, Politico reported.
Even at the urging of Iowa House Minority Leader Mark Smith, it went for only $250 — $100 less than the copy of “Humans of New York” the mayor had brought with him.
City Hall declined to comment further on the interview.
Additional reporting by Yoav Gonen