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Michael Bloomberg - Source: Reuters -
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In retrospect, it's appropriate that the city of New York will be governed for another term by a soft-spoken, but clearly power-crazed billionaire.
Mike Bloomberg squashed term limit legislation that had been voted in by referendum, arm-twisting a sometimes restive City Council to back his hunt for four more years in office. He then dipped into his own fortune to fund a campaign that, many believe, took media saturation to new lows, or highs, depending on your point of view.
You don't go to New York to make friends, or improve your inner being; you go to succeed. "Mayor Mike", as he likes to be known, has joined a very select but arcane group - people who have been mayors of New York for more than two terms.
Despite the aggression, the high-spending, the endless TV ads, Bloomberg just squeaked in running against a penniless nobody.
His inauguration speech was low on details, but offered a new note to the Bloomberg public persona: humility. No stars sang. Notably no state politicians, like the two New York senators, or Governor Paterson, were present. Even Bloomberg's Mum didn't show up, but then, she turns 101 on Sunday.
Three terms is a lot for any administration , and the threat, as much as it is for Bloomberg's mother, is inertia.
How is the mayor viewed? Let's just say that New Yorkers respect pushy people, they dislike ball-busters. Mayor Mike is looking, quietly, like the latter. He has had some success at improving the rotten public school system. He has increased access to City Hall. If you have a problem, you call 311. There used to be a bunch of numbers, and it was a confusing mess.
I personally hold him responsible for the inane taxi TV that we now have in the back of yellow cabs, but that's another story.
In person, the mayor is not a charismatic figure. He has the self-confidence that amassing piles of money can bring, but is extremely short. I interviewed him briefly once on 9/11. I'm not saying I wasn't ungrateful for the soundbite, but my chief impression was of how low I had to hold the microphone, and how easily he was able to reproduce the anodyne platitudes that public figures are supposed to excrete at such times. He did take the opportunity to talk the city up.
Remember, even Rudy Giuliani couldn't swing a third term. He opined in November of 2001 that he should get four more years. During his two terms, Giuliani is credited with vapourising crime, and turning the city around. And he had just single-handedly steered it (and the United States) through a terrorist attack, during the power vacuum after 9/11.
And Giuliani was a power mad, opera-crazed dictator bent on creating a cult of personality in which mindless zombies would scream with joy at his every insane pronouncement.
But even with such personal vim, and at the apex of his power, Giuliani could not achieve what Mike Bloomberg has done.
Giuliani couldn't make himself into a credible presidential candidate, either. I doubt this will be a problem for Mayor Mike.
Read more of Tim Wilson's blogs.
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