Times are bleak for Giants-loving Republican New Yorkers. OK, there are only about 16 of us that meet that description, but we have feelings, too. Joe Lhota’s campaign for New York City Mayor is not only failing to get off the ground, it appears to be going underground, maybe in homage to Mr. Lhota’s career with the MTA.

It is almost inconceivable that Mr. Lhota trails his Democratic rival, Bill de Blasio, by 44 points – actually one point worse than three weeks ago. This, for a man with management experience and at least one real achievement, outstanding direction of MTA’s response to the Sandy disaster. This against a candidate who has no achievements to speak of and whose popularity seems to stem mainly from his son’s extra-large Afro. It doesn’t get much more discouraging than this.

Mr. Lhota has been all but invisible, to the dismay of many in the city who are seriously concerned about Mr. de Blasio’s uber-liberal agenda. One week ago 40% of likely voters did not have an opinion of the candidate. Though I can’t say that to know Mr. Lhota is to love him, it is sure going to be tough to woo voters if they haven’t any opinion of the man whatsoever.

It is beyond frustrating, because as even the New York Times reported, voters actually disagree with a good portion of Mr. de Blasio’s platform. New Yorkers want the extraordinary Raymond Kelly to continue on as Police Commissioner; Mr. de Blasio does not. New Yorkers want more charter schools; teachers union-lackey Mr. de Blasio does not. Almost half support stop-and-frisk; you know who does not.

What to make of this mismatch of platform and support? Clearly Mr. Lhota isn’t “getting his message out”.  Not only has he failed to make an impact, the messaging he has done is beyond stupid. Imagine, he finally scrapes together enough money to run an ad campaign, and he squanders it trying to convince voters that he’s liberal on social issues. Heads up, Joe — that’s Mr. de Blasio’s turf. That is not where you are going to make an impact. No one is going to vote for you because you’re de Blasio “light.” 

The two issues that all New Yorkers take seriously are crime and education, and Mr. Lhota has the high ground on both. He should be filming ads promising to work with Mr.  Kelly to keep our city one of the safest in the world.  He should remind voters of the sinkhole that was New York in the 1980s, using photos like those featured in haunting scenes from Koch the movie – pictures of graffiti-defaced subway cars and burned out neighborhoods.

He should remind people that not so long ago it was unsafe to venture into Central Park after dark. Kids today don’t believe that in the 1980s you couldn’t park your car on the street without a “No Radio” sign in the window, or that everyone was careful to carry a $20 bill just in case they were mugged. They need to be told.

On education, Mr. Lhota should take his fight to parents looking for better schools. Mr. De Blasio, pandering to the city’s teachers unions, wants to halt the expansion of charter schools, by charging them rent. It is an outrageous proposal that threatens to undo the good work of the charter school movement and deny some of our most at-risk children real opportunity. It is unconscionable. And, it is racist.

Look at results from the recent Common Core testing in New York. In New York State, 31% of public school students in grades 3 through 8 were considered proficient in English; only 16% of blacks met that test, compared to 50% of Asians and 40% of whites. Only 15% of black kids made the cut in math, compared to 60% of Asians and 38% of whites.

Doubtless Mr. de Blasio and his camp would blame this outcome on poverty and too little money flowing into public schools. But, black youngsters at SuccessAcademyBronx 2, with an 85% poverty rate and not one white or Asian student in the test pool, outperformed every other city school; 97% of the kids achieved “proficiency” in math and 77% in English. That’s poster-worthy. Why isn’t Mr. Lhota all over it?

We hear that New Yorkers are tired of Mayor Bloomberg, and after 12 years of sometimes cranky leadership that may be true. But it’s hard to imagine voters can’t be addressed on the consequences of what happened when the the city was turned over to John Lindsay or David Dinkins. Voters are not to blame here. Mr. Lhota, like the Giants, hasn’t even managed the basic blocking and tackling. Like Eli, he needs to get his game in gear. Like, yesterday.