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Rob Ford is a character right out of The Simpsons, British writer argues

Springfield's Mayor Quimby.

The phenomenon that is Rob Ford continues to fascinate Canada watchers, from Jimmy Kimmel to Jon Stewart.

They're baffled how a guy who's admitted to smoking crack, who's allegedly consorted with drug dealers, who's been recorded in ill-considered drunken rants and talking to reporters about having oral sex with his wife is still considered a legitimate contender for re-election as mayor of Toronto in October.

But Colin Horgan, in a column for Britain's Guardian newspaper, thinks he's hit on a plausible explanation.

People simply love a bad boy, as long as he's not being directly bad to them.

Observers such as Kimmel see Ford shattering the stereotype of the polite, boring Canadian. But Horgan, a Canadian political writer, says Ford is just the latest in a long line of misbehaving mayors who triumph at the ballot box.

"His case might seem baffling, but it's not unprecedented," he writes. "Ford isn’t the first city leader to become embroiled in scandal only to see his poll numbers buttressed."

Boston's James Michael Curley, accused of organized-crime links, was actually in prison when he won his fourth term as mayor. Marion Barry was turfed as mayor of Washington, D.C. after being recorded smoking crack during a police sting in 1990. He was re-elected four years later, Horgan points out.

"Why do we let them get away with it?" he wonders.

[ Related: Rob Ford: 'I'm not a criminal' ]

Horgan thinks the answer likes in a study of the career of one "Diamond" Joe Quimby, mayor of Springfield. Neither the town nor Quimby are real, of course; they're part of the animated TV world of The Simpsons. But Quimby may as well be, Horgan suggests.

"Quimby is good satire for a reason," he says. "He embodies exactly we suspect of small-time populist politicians: that they’re two-bit and on the take."

Quimby sounds and looks a little like late U.S. senator Ted Kennedy, but Horgan says the stuff he says could easily have come out of Ford's mouth.

As evidence, he points to piece on Slate that offered a 20-question quiz inviting readers to decide which quotes were said by Quimby and which by Ford.

For instance, who said: “Are these morons getting dumber or just louder?” If you guessed Ford, you'd be wrong.

And: “I’m as clean as the days are long.” The unabashedly corrupt Quimby, right? Nope.

Ford, like Quimby, is always campaigning, says Horgan. Quimby never misses an opportunity to appeal for votes, even when being caught in a sleazy motel having an extra-marital fling. He's convinced "no scandal could ever outlive the permanent campaign." Is Horgan being too cynical when he agrees with that sentiment?

Horgan argues national leaders would never get this kind of "get out of jail free card."

"What if Barack Obama had been caught smoking crack?" he asks. "Americans have threatened impeachment for much less."

He's thinking of Bill Clinton here, but fails to note the Big Dog managed to skate past the Monica Lewinsky scandal through a combination of charm, semantic acrobatics and the amazing support of wife Hilary. (Behind every misbehaving politician there's a long-suffering spouse.)

But still, Horgan's main point isn't wrong. People view cities differently from nations.

"We understand a city differently: as a real thing, rather than an abstraction built on patriotism," he writes. "Unlike a country, which must project conceptual strength and continuity in order to hold together, cities are where we confront the chaos of human interaction."

[ Related: As Rob Ford kicks off campaign, Chow releases first attack ad ]

Which I guess means we're ready to accept more in the way of human failings in our mayors and demand less of what former president George H.W. Bush called "the vision thing."

"We are less fooled, or at least fooled for less time, by fantasies of municipal greatness than by those of national grandeur," writes Horgan. "We know our city too well. And we know ourselves too well."

Quimby tells voters at one point "You're nothing but a pack of fickle mush-heads!" To which they reply, "He's right. Give us Hell, Quimby!"

Cut to Rob Ford launching his re-election campaign last week.

"The people of Toronto know that I am just like them," he told supporters.

Ford's re-election hinges largely on whether Toronto voters believe that.