Mike Bloomberg Says Bill De Blasio's Campaign is Racist...He Should Have Hidden His Bi-Racial Marriage???

 

Mike Bloomberg

What was Mike Bloomberg thinking?

In a wide-ranging and unfiltered interview with New York Magazine's Chris Smith, New York Mayor Bloomberg charged that Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, the front-runner for the Democratic nomination to succeed him, is running a "racist" campaign. He also criticized de Blasio for using his family — he's white, his wife is black and they have two mixed-race children — to make a race-based appeal to voters.

Here's the exchange:

Then there’s Bill de Blasio, who’s become the Democratic front-runner. He has in some ways been running a class-warfare campaign—
Class-warfare and racist.

Racist? 
I mean he’s making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing. I do not think he himself is racist. It’s comparable to me pointing out I’m Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote. You tailor messages to your audiences and address issues you think your audience cares about.

This is bizarre for several reasons. A key reason is that it's a political gift to de Blasio, who has been getting tremendous traction with Democratic primary voters by painting himself as the anti-Bloomberg. Now he gets to spend the last four days of the primary campaign defending himself against Bloomberg's baseless charge of racism.

Bloomberg also helped de Blasio by declaring that The New York Times was right to endorse Council Speaker Christine Quinn in the Democratic primary. Though Bloomberg and Quinn are politically aligned, he's previously avoided explicitly endorsing her, probably because his endorsement actually hurts in the Democratic primary. Now she has it, to her detriment.

And then he echoed Mitt Romney, saying de Blasio's "tale of two cities" message is wrong because "this city is not two groups, and if to some extent it is, it’s one group paying for services for the other."

Buried deep in this statement, Bloomberg has a valid point: New York City depends heavily on its tax base of rich bankers and businesspeople to finance a generous welfare state, and it should enact policies that grow that tax base. But framing the city's wealth divide in makers vs. takers terms only makes de Blasio's message more appealing to the large majority of the electorate that does not consist of high-paid bankers.

When I finished reading this long interview — which includes a defense of basically every unpopular thing Bloomberg has ever done, from appointing Cathie Black as schools chancellor to trying to build a football stadium on the west side of Manhattan — what I most wondered is why Bloomberg agreed to give the interview at all. It's a trainwreck, bad for his legacy and bad for his preferred candidates to succeed him. Why didn't he just keep his mouth shut?

I think the answer is that Bloomberg is angry. He thinks he's been a great mayor — perhaps the best mayor in New York City's history. And he's had to spend a year watching the field of candidates to succeed him lambaste his record — a field he sees as so mediocre that he reportedly tried to invite every high-profile potential candidate you would think of, plus some you wouldn't, like ex-Philadelphia Mayor and Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

A Personal Favorite: NYC Educator On Eva Moskowitz' Dislike of Bill De Blasio

Bill may be happy that Eva doesn't like him.

Bill De Blasio and his wife Charlene and family are good for New York City.

Elect them. It takes a family.

Betsy Combier


NYC Educator

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

LINK

Eva Gets Creative

In what's likely to be the new status quo for the reformy crowd, overpaid charter magnate Eva Moskowitz takes surging Bill de Blasio to task for making the "choice" to send his kids to public school. The previous meme was simply trashing people like Diane Ravitch and Matt Damon, who had relatives in private schools. At that time, their absurd and idiotic argument was that such people wanted to deprive poor children the opportunity to goose-step along with Eva and Doug Lemov.

You see, in the quest for our tax dollars, it makes no difference that Eva and KIPP are not offering what's at Sidwell Friends or Dalton. Who cares if it's a test-prep factory you wouldn't send your kid to on a bet? The point is that is your choice. And the more crappy schools poor children can choose, the more money for the likes of Eva, Geoff Canada, and Rupert Murdoch, all of whom love your children more than you do.

The great thing about this is they can now trash absolutely everyone who opposes charter schools. You chose to send your kids to free public schools and now you oppose us taking the high scorers and leaving what's left for neighborhood schools to fret over? You, sir, are a hypocrite!

As am I, of course, for sending my kid to her local public school. What's really galling, if you bother to read her drivel, is that Eva doesn't want her fancy schools to have to take in the high needs kids public schools take without question. She repeatedly insists she's a public school, but let's face it, she makes twice what any public school principal does, spends all kinds of money on advertising, and sued to avoid facing a state audit.

What the hell kind of public school is that? Eva Moskowitz wants to pick and choose who gets to patronize her "success" academies, Eva Moskowitz wants to take state money, but she doesn't feel we lowly taxpayers have any right to know what she does with it.

Eva can write trash about Bill de Blasio in Rupert Murdoch's yellow rag every day of the year, for all I care. But it's pretty clear to me she isn't worthy to touch the hem of de Blasio's garment. And if I were de Blasio, I'd be glad. Who knows where that hand has been?