"If it's hot, don't sit on it" department

"Consumers and voters are hungering for authenticity like never before."
--pollster John Zogby


It’s not that Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn’t like people, it’s just that he prefers rich ones. How do we know this? He said so, last week! “If you make more money, you deserve more money," he explained during his weekly radio show. Similarly, his recent refusal to extend food stamp benefits to non-working, able-bodied adults reflects his position that work is the best way to escape poverty. (Fair enough. Still, remember, this is the mayor who in 2001 described asthma as a public health problem that comes from "not knowing how to clean." And the same mayor who explained last summer, "if it's hot, don't sit on it," in regard to scorching hot mats at city playgrounds. A real "people person.") He reserves his affection for investment bankers, traders and others who have lost jobs on Wall Street; they'll be the beneficiaries of his $45 million retraining program.

A recent New York Times editorial described Bloomberg's "tough love" stance on food stamps as "cramped." More like morally constipated, and his undemocratic power play over term limits demonstrates that he is bankrupt of integrity.

Is Bloomberg qualified to get the city out of its financial mess, or did he cause it? And how dearly will his term limits debacle cost him in the polls? We shall see.
Will people finally wake up and get real about electing a mayor? What about William C. Thompson and Anthony Weiner (who were described, along with Christine Quinn, in a Wall Street Journal editorial as "the political equivalent of "The Three Stooges")? What do we know about Tony Avella?
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