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Anybody but that guy

Last minute endorsements* are trickling in for New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, most notably from the New Yorker’s Hendrik Hertzberg, who is apparently quite the fan and gushes that New Yorkers “will, most of us, troop to the polls on Tuesday and pull the lever for Mayor Mike” because the “truth is that [he] has been a very good mayor.” In a long list of Mr. Bloomberg’s accomplishments—the public schools are better, racism has been eradicated, and we’re all healthier for eating fewer trans fats—Mr. Hertzberg argues that the mayor has “fought the good fight for congestion pricing and gun control.”

It is debatable whether Mr. Bloomberg actually ever fought “the good fight” on either of these issues, or whether this founder of a very successful media company, who excels at nothing if not the maintenance of his own public image, was trying to ingratiate himself with the gullible flocks on the left. In any case, Mr. Bloomberg didn’t exactly get jack shit done on either of these issues, that’s how much he fought the good fight. And as Gawker of all places had to point out this morning, in an unexpectedly stirring endorsement of voting for anyone but Mr. Bloomberg, it is helpful to recall that this second-term mayor has so far been “unable to win any political battle with anyone he couldn’t literally buy off.”

Make no mistake, that includes you and me, we are among the vanquished. “We know that we’re bought and paid for,” admits even Mr. Hertzberg, who finds the situation acceptable if infantilizing. (His word, not ours). I guess that means that everyone who votes against Mr. Bloomberg tomorrow—everyone who votes for Democratic opponent Bill Thompson (we wouldn’t recommend this), for Reverend Billy Talen (our choice), for Stephen Christopher, for Dan Fein, for Francisca Villar, or for any other name of their choosing—all of us will be one great countable “we” who were not bought and paid for. Call us the adults.

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*This one isn’t intended as an endorsement, though it might as well be, first misidentifying Mr. Bloomberg as an “Independent,” not a Republican, and then calling him “an incredibly popular” figure, when in fact he hasn’t been able to get his polling numbers to rise above 50 percent—usually considered a sure sign of trouble for any incumbent who is not a billionaire bankrolling his own candidacy. We expect better from Talking Points Memo.

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