He’s got ads on television and New Yorkers’ mail boxes are filling with slick literature touting his “independence.” It sounds and feels like a political campaign, but it’s not election season, so what is Mike Bloomberg running for now?
His life.
I’ve been saying for nearly a year that Bloomberg is showing signs of third-term-itis and political burnout. Its victims are usually the last to know, and Bloomberg was no exception. He’s been too detached from the job, has no clear priorities and acts as if Gotham is lucky to have him.
Fortunately, he’s starting to wake up. It’s taken a series of dismal polls with his approval ratings stuck below 40 percent thanks to big-time flops such as the Christmas-blizzard fiasco and the unpopular choice of Cathie Black as chancellor.
He promised me in a February interview that he would devote his final term to reforming the crushing pension and mandate costs, saying, “I’ve got really nothing to lose.” I think he meant it, and he just named a chief pension administrator to curb abuses, but the slide in his popularity is making it even more difficult to get major changes through Albany.
Already he’s butting heads with a new and more popular governor in Andrew Cuomo, who has his own agenda and little fear of Mayor Mike. Cuomo brushed off virtually all of Bloomberg’s budget demands, including for more aid.
Not surprisingly, Bloomberg is responding with his ace in the hole — his own money. By opening the spigot for the ads, the mayor shows he senses his power slipping away.
The first ads are too personal, dryly touting the image of nonpartisanship and business experience. They say he’s “standing up for New York’s families” while he blames “Albany’s budget cuts” for city reductions.
They feel like campaign ads because they are, right down to stock video footage left over from the 2009 race.
Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson says the first round was designed to counter union ads that attacked Bloomberg for planning teacher layoffs and other cuts. He said the next round starts tomorrow, and the pamphlet I’ve seen does a far better job of focusing on the problem of seniority rules for teachers. Along with a companion TV ad, the direct mailer explains the mayor’s plan and cites the endorsements of The Post and other papers for changing the law so the best teachers are spared, regardless of seniority.
The ads might work, but Bloomberg’s standing has fallen so far that I suspect he’s going to need something more fundamental to have real success. Public fatigue with him started with his changing the term-limits law, and is now so pronounced that, absent a miracle or tragedy, he’s probably passed the peak of his power.
Instead of reminding people why they trusted him once, he needs to earn their trust anew. To do that, he must be more engaged and responsive to public will rather than treating dissent as mere noise he can ignore.
If Bloomy is an optimist, the schools offer him lots of room for improvement. Many gains of his first two terms, the product of dumbed-down tests, have been erased by rising standards, and the new reality has taken its toll on the “education mayor.” An NY1-Marist poll last week found that 65 percent of registered voters disapprove of his handling of the schools, with only 27 percent approving.
When Marist asked the same question in July 2009, 53 percent approved and 38 percent disapproved. A recent Quinnipiac poll found Chancellor Black with a measly 17 percent approval.
She is clearly part of the problem, and City Hall has sounded out counselor-types to help guide her through the maze. So far, no miracle workers have appeared.
But let’s face it — Black is more tail than dog. Bloomberg is Bloomberg’s biggest problem.
A Snook attack on civilization
When the book is written on the decline and fall of America, the human train wreck known as Snooki will deserve the final chapter. But unlike the barbarians of old, she didn’t need to crash through the gates of civilization. They were flung open in her honor.
Hell, she was paid $32,000 by Rutgers University for the privilege of hearing her pearls of wisdom. The money came from mandatory student fees, and I’d say Mom and Dad got exactly what they paid for. Her advice to students: “Study hard, but party harder.”
The end.
Exit Gates from hell
Robert Gates plans to retire this year, but he is not going quietly. The secretary of defense has gone on offense to make his unhappiness known about the Libyan war. Here are some of his public comments, starting with early reservations about a no-fly zone:
“Let’s just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses.”
Asked how long we would be in Libya, he said, “I don’t think anybody knows the answer to that.” What he did think of sending American ground forces into the country? “Not as long as I am in this job.”
The opposition forces are “pretty much a pickup ball game at this point.”
Libya “was not a vital national interest to the United States.”
As for arming and training the rebels, “as far I’m concerned, someone else should do that.”
Individually, the comments raised eyebrows. Taken together, they show a virtual hostage trying to signal the truth of his captivity.
Unfortunately, nobody is listening. President Obama rebuffed Gates’ advice at nearly every step, which we can safely assume was more strenuous in private than it was in public.
Perhaps the most curious aspect of the affair, however, is how little mainstream-media attention it has received. I can’t find a single instance of coverage that recounts all the above comments, a list by no means exhaustive.
It was certainly a media circus when President Bush ordered the Iraq surge against the wishes of many commanders. But that was Bush, and the media hated war then. Or was it just Bush they hated?
Helping themselves
Maybe the red ink went to their heads. The two bosses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac got a combined $17 million in pay and perks in 2009 and 2010 — even though the mortgage-fi nance giants were on the taxpayer dole to the tune of $153 billion. It’s a fine example of why the phrase “government is here to help” is consid ered one of the world’s three great lies.
Leadoff man on Dems’ extreme team
Chuck Schumer lives by the phone, and now it’s revealed him accidentally telling the truth. Thinking he was talking only to fellow Dems on a conference call, reporters invited to listen in caught him in partisan warfare mode. “I always use the word ‘extreme.’ That is what the caucus instructed me to use this week,” he said about the Dem strategy to attack Republicans.
The “extreme” tag is standard fare for liberals, but it is more troubling that Schumer is so willing to take orders from party bosses. Silly voters thought he was in Washington to represent them.