Sure you're not running, Mike.
That's why you took $300 million out of your savings account, getting ready to drop it into the 2012 presidential campaign like snowflakes during a December blizzard.
That's why you hired two news flacks to write op-ed pieces at Bloomberg News so that you would have a voice in the national discussion on politics and the economy.
That's why you hired Howard Wolfson, Hillary Clinton's former campaign aide during her '08 run for the White House, to be your director of communications.
That's why you appear on Meet The Press and other national political shows and have your political people feed shill columnists like Broder and Brooks column ideas about the new non-partisan "No Labels" party.
Sure you're not running.
Well, Bloomberg may still want to run for president in 2012, but that dream died a hard death this week during the "Bloomberg Blizzard," as one city councilman dubbed it.
When the newspapers detail the number of people who were hurt or killed by the city's lack of preparation for the storm and inability to deal with the aftermath, when you have old ladies on TV shoveling snow from their street and looking into to the camera to spit out "Shame on you, Bloomberg!", you can be pretty sure whatever chances Bloomberg had of winning some votes in 2012 as a "competent manager type" are gone.
Here's how the Daily News put it:
Mike for President? Ha!
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. said city residents outside Manhattan scoffed at Bloomberg's vaunted management skills. "He wants to run for President? Can you imagine a national catastrophe or crisis if hecan't even plow the streets ofthe Bronx?" Diaz said.
Indeed - between the Cathie Black mess, the CityTime scandal, and now the Bloomberg Blizzard of 2012, I think we can safely say that Mayor Bloomberg faces an uphill run for president in 2012.
And on the uphill run, he'll have to face 2 feet of snow, a burning bus stuck in snow, some parked cars destroyed by NYC snow plows, and an angry mob of New Yorkers who want to run Bloomberg out of town.
Make no mistake - when you have as much money as Bloomberg has and enough shills in the press on the Bloomberg payroll to build a thirty story igloo, Bloomberg shouldn't be completely counted out of anything, including making a comeback as mayor.
Indeed, one can make a case that if the city faced another catastrophe or terrorist attack and Bloomberg accorded himself well, these snowstorm memories would fade.
Nonetheless, as of today, December 29, 2010, I think we can officially declare Bloomberg's hopes of running for president in 2012 on life support.
Bloomberg had better hope that the EMS team called to resuscitate those hopes has streets cleared of burning buses, stalled cars and smashed snow plows.
Possibly, the Bloomberg administration is going to unravel (although that may be too much to hope for). In today's (12/29/10) Daily News,buried in the middle, was an article by Lisa Colangelo, "Sanitation Workers Say City is Dumping on Them While They Scramble to Clear Snow." Henry Nespoli, head of the sanitation workers' union, had warned city officials that the number of sanitation workers was the lowest in years and might not be enough to battle a big storm. The City and Deputy Mayor, Stephen Goldsmith, came back with the plan to hire 100 new sanitation workers and demote 100 supervisors to help bring up the numbers on the street. Another 100 supervisor positions would be eliminated through attrition.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/12/29/2010-12-29_sanitation_workers_say_city_is_dumping_on_them_while_they_scramble_to_clear_snow.html?r=ny_local&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nydnrss%2Fny_local+%28NY+Local%29
I hope this is the end of Bloomie's presidential ambitions. But like Bill Maher said reg Sarah Failin, I won't put anything past our stupid country. And we don't know how long Bailout Barrack's list will stretch , him having just completed the incredible feat of bailing out the Republican brand deep down from the toilet.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link on the sanit workers story, anon. They're going to try and hang this on them, but the NY Times is already lout with a story tonight saying Bloomberg fucked up by refusing to declare a snow emergency even though he had 19 hours warning on the blizzard and 31 hours on significant snowfall.
ReplyDeleteG3, I think you're right - we can never underestimate the comeback abilities of wrecked politicians. Maybe a Bloomberg/Mark Sanford ticket!