A Change That's Hard to Believe In

We were taken aback, perhaps naively so, by this Miguel Martinez campaign poster, now plastered around Inwood one week before the current City Council member's challenge to Assemblyman Adriano Espaillat is set to play out in the Democratic primary.

After all, like Espaillat, Martinez was a supporter of Hillary Clinton in her race against Obama, and scored headlines for his efforts. Following Clinton's big Super Tuesday victory in New York, and before he declared his candidacy for the Assembly, Martinez referred to Clinton voters as Upper Manhattan's "true Democrats."

Of course Martinez and Espaillat would back the senator from New York in her bid for the presidency, and it's expected that they would now get behind their party's nominee. But to latch on to Obama in this way -- even copping the "change" slogan -- after so vigorously opposing him in the primary is just, well, tacky.

The Espaillat posters are out too, of course. Hedging his bets, the District 72 incumbent identifies himself with both Obama and Clinton: