Former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu continued his book tour/presidential campaign this weekend on CNN. There he tried to distinguish himself from his more left-wing rivals in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper.

From CNN:

“I have always talked about governing from the middle,” Landrieu said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I am what they call a radical centrist. There’re not many of us left anymore. And yeah, it is really important for us to make sure that if we are given the responsibility to govern, that we govern in a pragmatic way, in a big tent way that makes sense.”

A guy who preferred to demolish politically incorrect historical monuments instead of fighting crime and tackling infrastructure issues really doesn’t have the right to lecture anyone about pragmatism. The idea that Mitch Landrieu is some kind of a competent “radical centrist” is laughable to anyone who has observed his political career.

Mitch is an opportunist first and foremost. The only reason why he is not campaigning as a hardcore progressive is that he knows that route is already pretty crowded.

Mitch’s first problem is that Democrats are frankly not going to nominate a white guy in 2020 to take on Donald Trump. His second problem is that the others in the centrist lane such as Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, John Hickenlooper, Tim Ryan, and Terry McAuliffe are far more accomplished than he is.

Here’s some more from the interview.

The former mayor repeatedly said he was not a candidate for president and did not yet plan to run in 2020, but he predicted a “family fight” among Democrats as they seek to limit President Donald Trump to one term. Landrieu said he expects a wide swath of candidates, including some who occupy the right and center positions of the Democratic Party, and again called for a “big tent” approach.

Mitch is running for president. He won’t go far, but he definitely is running. He’s lying. The rest of the country will find out that he does that quite a lot.

Finally, Nutroots Netroots Nation, which is a big conference for left-wing activists, is in New Orleans this week. Mitch Landrieu was not invited to speak. He was asked about that by Tapper.

Landrieu’s appearance on CNN came ahead of the progressive political convention Netroots Nation in New Orleans, where major contenders for the 2020 race are set to appear. Asked about what it might mean that he was not scheduled to be at the event in his hometown, Landrieu said he had not been invited, but he did not think that was “a sign of anything plus or minus.”

The reason why Mitch wasn’t invited was that the organizers didn’t give him much thought. Mitch is a non-entity, despite his book tour and media coverage.