How Fenty came to squander that success and the goodwill that catapulted him to office is the story of a mayor who misread an electorate he was sure he knew better than anyone, who ignored advisers' early warnings that key constituencies were abandoning him, who shut out confidantes who told him what he did not want to hear and who began to listen only when the race was all but lost.
Fenty ignored advisors and thought that his natural campaign skills would carry him to victory.
This will likely put the brakes on the kind of school choice reform that Michelle Rhee and her education administration have brought to D.C., as she has repeatedly stressed that she would resign under a Vincent Gray mayorship.