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New York’s Loser Mayor
Bill de Blasio has a big mouth, which is good, because he eats a lot of words.
For all his bluster, the 6’5” mayor of New York City loses a lot of political battles. And he loses them in public.
During his 2013 campaign, the Stringbean Sandinista made a big show of promising to ban horse carriages in the city on “day one” of his mayoralty: “We are going to get rid of the horse carriages. Period. It’s over.” Well, today is day 568 of de Blasio’s reign, and the horseys are still clip-clopping around Central Park.
So much for the Progressive Avenger’s promises.
In his first month in office, de Blasio picked a public fight with one of the city’s best-known charter school operators—Eva Moskowitz—thundering that she needed to “stop being tolerated, enabled, supported.”
“There is no way in hell that Eva Moskowitz should get free rent, O.K.?” he crowed.
Well, here we are, day 568, and not only does Eva Moskowitz still get free rent, O.K.?, she’s got a new best friend in de Blasio’s biggest nemesis—Democratic New York governor Andrew Cuomo—and hasn’t ruled out the possibility of running for mayor herself in 2017.
So much for the Brooklyn Beanstalk’s threats.
The latest own goal came yesterday when the very tall man born Warren Wilhelm, Jr., caved to pressure from Cuomo (and others) to drop his aggressive bid to cap the number of Uber cars allowed to operate in the city.
Just a few days ago, Mayor McWeed was talking tough: “I think it’s clear that as a corporation, as a multibillion-dollar corporation, Uber thinks it can dictate to government. I remind them that the government represents the people and the people’s larger interest, and that is more important than any one company’s needs.”
So much for the Dumbo Dictator’s dictates.
What’s actually clear is this: When Billy the Bull chooses a battle, he always ends up getting bruised and his opponent always comes away stronger. That’s a bad political formula, but it might actually be in the larger interest of the people of New York City.
Published in General
Are you advocating that his blunders come to pass?
Reminds me a little of the Donald.
I would take care of the ISIS problem so fast you would not believe it!
In his effort to ban NYC’s carriage horses and drivers, he has been doing the bidding of his wealthy so-called “animal rights” backers, NYClass and PETA. The guy refused to meet anyone involved with the carriage horse trade and refused see any of their operations – all totally legit, well regulated, humane and safe. Instead, he parroted NYClass’s lunatic, untruthful and baseless claims. He’s a true totalitarian.
Hopefully, for that, he seems to have only strengthened the carriage horse supporters. It would be hard to imagine Central Park and NYC without the carriage horses and drivers.
Can we get him to run against Hillary? Pretty please?
There will be exactly as many Uber cars as fits the people’s interests as determined by there own wallets.
Can you claim that he didn’t receive any bribes from the intended targets that helped change is focus to other issues?
There was also the fact that the carriage houses were sitting on prime territory some of his biggest donors wanted to develop. This guy is crony to the bone.
Great post – I was thinking exactly the same thing when I heard about his Uber retreat. He also failed on his proposed millionaire’s tax, and he failed to get most of his agenda through Albany this year, including a long-term extension of mayoral control over schools. I wonder, does he care if he wins? Or is he just rallying the base?
Is he campaigning for governor?
Oh, I live in NYC and I have the unfortunate position of seeing de Blasio up close and living uder his leadership. He is as lefty as they come. I do believe he’s a communist in hiding. He doesn’t even try to hide it much. Yes, he’s lost a few battles, but like Obama has done on the national level he’s changing the political status quo to the left. There is a palpable difference in the lefty governing now that he’s taken over. And despite these losses he seems like a shoe-in for re-election. He’s built a solid voting block on the left.
I wasn’t aware he was hiding it. He seems to be quite proud of honeymooning in Cuba.
Dear Mr. Matthew Hennessey,
The International Committee of RINO Squishes would like to reprimand you for your unfortunate use of the Trumplike epithet “Loser”. In this time of international crisis, we believe the most solid advice we can give to those of you fighting for the betterment of life in New York is to avoid unnecessary trigger warnings through overly aggressive nouns, adjectives and adverbs.
ps Its also unkind and counter productive to refer to the New York mayor as the north end of a south bound horse.
President of Venezuela seems more to his liking.
Shoudn’t those in New York who elected the guy feel the full effects of his policies? They knew who he was when they elected him.
So if De Blasio is a loser – and I agree he is – then what does that make New Yorkers who voted for him?
You guessed it!
Of course you could substitute Obama and US voters and be just as accurate.
That was quite a few years ago and he didn’t mention it during his campaign. But it was a signal to the radicals in the city. And there are a lot of radicals here.
I’m pretty sure he mentioned it during his campaign. According to this article, his daughter learned of his honeymoon destination for the first time when he (de Blasio) mentioned it during a debate.
He certainly spoke openly about his support for the Sandinistas during the campaign.
Actually that article says the honeymoon story “slipped out.” Whether it was deliberate or not I don’t know. But he was not up front about it. My recollection was that the press brought up the Sandinista and Cuban honeymoon. He wasn’t bragging about it, at least to the general public. I’m sure he got word to the radicals some how, and perhaps that’s how it slipped out.
I wasn’t there and I have no interest in watching a debate that includes de Blasio, so I will take your word for it. Regardless, it was widely reported during the campaign (I certainly heard a lot about it sitting in Chicago) and to the best of my knowledge, he never said it was a mistake or said anything to imply that his political views had moved towards the center from his youth when he thought Cuba was a communist paradise. He ran to the far left of the New York Democrats which are far to the left of America.
He may not have publicly boasted about his honeymoon in Cuba as an integral part of his platform, but he certainly seemed proud from my admittedly distant perch, he certainly gave no indication that he was ashamed of it.
Oh I agree, he’s proud of it. I was just saying he wasn’t personally putting it out for the general public. The general public knew about it because of the press.