The NY Times/Quinn Endorsement: If You Like The Third Bloomberg Term, You'll Love The Fourth

The NY Times endorsement of Christine Quinn for mayor has gotten a lot of play in the media in the past day, but in their zeal to proclaim her the best candidate in the Democratic primary for mayor, they forgot a couple of things:

The Times' endorsement omits any mention of Quinn's involvement in the city council "slush fund," as well as term limits [COUGH COUGH].

Or the problems over her temperament the Times covered back in the spring - like canceling the Vallone scholarship for tens of thousands of  CUNY students because she was pissed at Peter Vallone Jr. or shutting off funding for a senior citizens program because the council person in her district didn't thank Quinn in a p.r. release.

I've seen some people on the Internet say that if an anti-Bloomberg backlash is fueling de Blasio's rise in the polls, then the NY Times endorsement of Quinn as Bloomberg Mach 4 may end up helping de Blasio rather than Quinn.

The thing is, I'm not sure an anti-Bloomberg backlash is enough to make de Blasio the next mayor.

Harry Enten has pointed out that in many of the public polls, the LV Democratic Primary model has Bloomberg either at 50% approval or very close to it.

That's why Thompson has tempered much of his criticism of Bloomberg, only going out on a limb and opposing Bloomberg policies like stop-and-frisk when his campaign felt he absolutely had to change course.

Think about the race this way:

Quinn is Bloomberg Mach 4.

De Blasio is running as the anti-Bloomberg (or something close to that.)

Thompson is the candidate in the middle, with a foot on both sides.

Quite frankly, that's why I think I distrust Thompson more than Quinn these days.

Thompson wants to be all things to all people.

Quinn, well, you know she's a real estate and corporate sell-out, she's running to continue the Bloomberg policies.

And de Blasio, you can argue that his "progressive" policies are, like most politician's policies, thinly held and easily discarded, but he has run as a strong progressive candidate in this cycle.

Dunno how that all shakes out in the primary, but given Bloomberg's ratings in the polling of Likely Voters in the Democratic Primary, running as the anti-Bloomberg is not the slam dunk you think it would be.

Just something to note with a little over two weeks to go in the race.