I would suggest that if he is as bad as his severest critics claim, then they should also question Jack Layton's judgement in allowing him to run for the NDP in the first place, and making him Deputy Leader subsequent to his election. Are Mulcair's critics prepared to level some of those very same criticisms against Jack? Did our most popular federal leader since Tommy Douglas really screw up that badly?
The left needs to get over this propensity to try to read people's inner politics as if it were reading auras or something like.
Jack Layton recruited Mulcair to play what turned out to be a fantastic role in the party. He was not recruiting a future leader.
We were judging Mulcair as a leadership candidate. For which, Jack's summation of Mulcair, whatever that may have been, is exactly irrelevant.