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'Buffoon' Leads Incumbent in Race for London Mayor

Posted Apr 3, 08 10:11 CDT in World 

(Newser) – The two leading candidates for mayor of London, Britain's most important elected office, are locked in a neck-and-neck race, according to a new Guardian poll. Ken Livingstone, the fiery Labour incumbent and sworn enemy of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, is now running just behind the Conservative challenger: MP Boris Johnson, a former mag editor and self-declared "blithering buffoon."

A New York Times profile this week called the blond-haired Johnson "some kind of hyper-articulate Labrador," but somehow he has convinced Londoners that he might make a good mayor after all. Despite his baroque oratorical style and "habit of bumbling into humiliating scrapes," Johnson now holds a 51-49 edge over Livingstone.
Sources: Guardian (UK), New York Times

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Conservative MP Boris Johnson arrives outside City Hall in London, Monday July 16, 2007, to launch his campaign as a candidate to be the Mayor of the city.   (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Boris Johnson speaks to the media to launch his campaign as a candidate to be the Mayor of London, outside City Hall in central London, Monday, July 16, 2007.   (AP Photo/Sang Tan)
Britain's Mayor of London Ken Livingstone launches his bid for re-election in London, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. The elections for the Mayor of London and the London Assembly take place on May 1, 2008.   (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Boris Johnson officially launches his campaign for election to become Mayor of London, during a press conference in London Monday Sept. 3, 2007.   (AP Photo)
Conservative MP Boris Johnson in his Watlington constituency. Johnson is a candidate to become Mayor of London.   (AP Photo)
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