The Post this morning endorses the candidacy of Michael R. Bloomberg to serve four more years as mayor of New York City.
We do so for many of the same reasons that led us to back him four years ago: This is not the time for untested leadership in City Hall.
And Bill Thompson, a fundamentally decent and well-intentioned Democrat, simply doesn’t measure up to the standard Bloomberg has set since 2002.
It can be hard to warm to Bloomberg’s governing style, and we have little patience for his often arrogant nanny-state meddling in New Yorkers’ private lives.
But it is also hard to imagine what New York City would look like today if either of his past opponents, Mark Green or Fernando Ferrer, had been elected in his stead.
Fact is, Bloomberg has put together a remarkable record.
* On education: Mike Bloomberg will be remembered as the mayor who brought accountability to the system. Supervisors, principals, teachers, students — all are now expected to show results.
And they have, often spectacularly.
* On crime: Bloomberg and Commissioner Ray Kelly took a crime rate that already was declining dramatically and drove it to levels not seen since the ’60s.
And they did so even while deploying significant resources into counterterrorism — helping to keep New York safe from another 9/11.
* On finances: Eight years ago, Bloomberg took a city driven deep into recession by 9/11 and helped bring it back. Last June, he delivered a budget that cut spending by $1.5 billion — even as Albany’s budget grew by 10 percent.
Yes, he negotiated deals with the municipal unions that included overly generous raises. But he also insisted on tough social-services policies designed to reduce fraud, end dependency and guarantee that only the truly needy receive government aid.
Whether he maintains this prudent fiscal course is the great question mark of a third Bloomberg term.
But the record suggests that he will.
There is, of course, one other matter: Doesn’t New York City have term limits?
No doubt, some New Yorkers are angry about how Mayor Mike used his considerable resources to having them set aside to allow him to run again. It was a characteristic display of Bloombergian hubris, and we suspect that it will cost him on Election Day.
Plus, the mayor himself may come to regret the run.
Third terms historically are problematic in New York politics; just ask Ed Koch. Events intrude, and conspire to tax the abilities of even the most talented leaders.
But that’s all the more reason why it’s important that the most talented candidate on the mayoral ballot be elected. Mike Bloomberg has been a competent — sometimes brilliant — steward of a successful city that not so long ago was deemed ungovernable.
He has earned four more years.