Fade To Cathie Black

The latest Q poll has Cathie Black's approval rating at a dismal 17%.

Her disapproval rating is 49%.

Even the NY Post seems down on her:

It is said you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Cathie Black better hope that's not true.

More than four months after Mayor Bloomberg announced that the little-known magazine executive would be his new schools chancellor, Black is failing to create a positive identity for herself. She is still defined by the clumsy rollout of her appointment, a battle over her credentials and by minor gaffes she made since taking over Jan. 1.

...

Factors beyond her control contribute to Black's problems. She was greeted by budget cutbacks and controversy, as the mayor seeks to close underperforming schools and battles with the unions and the Legislature about seniority rules during planned layoffs.

And Bloomberg himself is sinking, with the same poll showing only 39 percent of New Yorkers approve of his performance, while 51 percent disapprove. That's his lowest standing in eight years.

Among school parents, only 28 percent approve of Bloomberg, while 61 percent disapprove.

The combination of his and Black's weak standing could prove deadly to the mayor's ability to make major school progress in his final three years. "The way it's going, you'll have the 'education mayor' ending his third term with a chancellor who isn't seen as credible," a Bloomberg insider told me.

Michael Goodwin goes on to say that Black is still not allowed to make her own decisions and that his request for an interview with her was denied by the DOE.

And there are a couple of anonymous quotes from "insiders" that suggests some in the DOE and the NYSED are out to get her.

Four months into her tenure as chancellor and it has become quite clear that the "brilliant manager" that Bloomberg claimed Black to be (a claim that was repeated by the op-ed page of the NY Post, it must be said) was an untrue characeterization at best.

She is a corporate hack who has managed to make it through life very well, thank you, through a combination of cronyism, flattery, manipulation, and cynicism.

Now that she is in the public eye and is the face of an education department that pursues some very unpopular policies, that stuff isn't working for her anymore.