I suspect that as Public Advocate, a job with almost no responsibility, Mr. de Blasio had the opportunity to do favors for politically influential neighborhood leaders and thereby build an organization that a successful candidate needs to win an election, but his major Democratic opponents – Quinn, Thompson, Liu, and Weiner – also had the wherewithal and know-how to build their campaign organizations. Mr. Weiner shot himself in the foot (when he wasn’t shooting something else with his cellphone), but it is not clear to me how Mr. de Blasio distinguished himself from the other candidates.

Perhaps what distinguishes him is his unabashed liberalism – this is a liberal city, don’t forget – and the expectations of voters that he will advance their interests. Ms. Quinn linked herself to Mr. Bloomberg, which is not a bad strategy, but not enough to win. Mr. Thompson was tied closely to the teachers’ union, also not a bad strategy, and he almost defeated Mayor Bloomberg in the 2009 election. Mr. Liu had some campaign funding scandals which probably made people outside his base in Flushing wary of supporting him, but no candidate can with without broadening his support beyond his/her base.

I am not sure how Mr. de Blasio will govern, but I do not know how any of the other candidates would govern, either. So much of municipal governance involves low-profile issues like zoning and neighborhood-level spending, and most of the public – certainly me – have no idea what a candidate really intends to do. Mr. de Blasio seems to have sound vision, and he talks the talk that I like. Whether he walks the walk remains to be seen, but the polls tell us we will find out over the next 4 years.