Baldwin for NYC mayor? No kidding

Alec Baldwin's campaign for New York City mayor must be serious. He's just snagged the endorsement of Chevy Chase.

Who says politics is predictable and dull?

Just two weeks ago, Anthony Weiner was the presumptive favorite to replace Mike Bloomberg. The boyish congressman had outer-borough chutzpah. He had money in the bank. He had City Council Speaker Christine Quinn as his chief opponent.

Well, something happened on the way to a landslide. Not since Dominique Strauss-Kahn wrecked his campaign for president of France had a pol's easy fortunes shifted quite so abruptly. Truly, we're in Rudy-for-president-2008 territory here.

So what's with Alec? Does he really expect to go from "30 Rock" to City Hall? Give the Massapequa flash this much credit: He's already leading in the polls of "SNL" hosts.

You know what's happening here, right? When a political race is in upheaval and no obvious front-runner is in command, lots of people start looking in the mirror and asking themselves:

Why not the best?

Why not me?

If Donald Trump is actually reconsidering his latest demurral from the Republican presidential campaign, how far-fetched does Mayor Baldwin sound?

RAINY-WEEKEND FUN

1. Make the hard summer choice: Food or gas?

2. Read all 24,000 pages of Palin emails

3. Graph the coming teacher layoffs

4. Check Wikipedia for "double-dip recession"

5. Define "binding" and "nonbinding" referendum

ASKED AND UNANSWERED: The new LI bus company has ties to Alfonse? My goodness, what are the chances? . . . If Nassau officials can't even run a referendum -- Coliseum funding or no? -- should the next vote they schedule be more of a recall? . . . How 'bout this as the new slogan at Stony Brook U? "A good education ain't cheap"? Or would the beefed-up English Department prefer: "A good education isn't cheap"? . . . Wait, didn't the LIRR solve the gap problem? Why didn't anyone tell 92-year-old Ben Goldman, who lost his footing and took a bad tumble in Great Neck? . . . Did you notice all the blowback from last weekend's wind-gust bounce house mishap in Oceanside? The home video of the flying inflatable castle is now a big hit on local news shows across America, as anchors warn of Bounce House Terror everywhere . . . Is anyone actually against the Daytop Village plan to bring drug treatment into William Floyd High in Mastic Beach? Isn't school where the savable kids are? Why shouldn't the saving start there?

THE NEWS IN SONG:

The Clash, "Should I Stay or Should I Go?" tinyurl.com/gostay

LONG ISLANDERS OF THE WEEK: THE GILGO FAMILIES

The families of all murder victims suffer terribly. But there's been an added burden for the relatives of five women who worked as escorts and whose bodies have now been found near Ocean Parkway. Whatever put these women in harm's way -- bad associates, poor career choices, bad luck -- they and their families do not remotely deserve any of this. Megan Waterman was the first woman to be identified as a victim of a possible Long Island serial killer. She is being remembered this weekend by her mom, Lorraine, her brother Greg and others a year after her disappearance from the Holiday Inn Express in Hauppauge. Megan's family -- and the families of Amber Lynn Costello, Jessica Taylor, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Melissa Barthelemy -- deserve our special understanding and our extra support.

Email ellis@henican.com

Follow on twitter @henican