Arghhhhh!

Last Tuesday was the election for the next Mayor of NYC...and some other stuff. Of course, there were tons of print and broadcast ads and plenty of robo-calls. Since most of you aren't NYers and may not know, I'll give you the short recap. Mayor Bloomberg and current City Comptroller, Bill Thompson ran against each other. During recent years, the two of them repeatedly publicly stated that the other was the best Mayor/Comptroller the city has ever had. During the last year, while the election ramped up, they each repeatedly publicly stated that the other was the worst Mayor/Comptroller the city has ever had.

Bloomberg won the election, but only by a surprisingly small margin. It should be acknowledged that:

-Bloomberg sorta issued a unilateral legal-thingy that said term limits didn't apply to him so he could run for a third term in the first place.
-Lots and lots of people didn't bother voting because Bloomberg's reelection seemed like a foregone conclusion. (Frankly, I think it was the Bloomberg voters who stayed home, figuring their votes weren't really needed, but what do I know?)
-Bloomberg, a multi-billionaire, is said to have spent $180 per vote. (Personally, I'd prefer he pay me directly instead of inundating me with ads for two years.)

Anyway, I'll admit that my favorite thing about Wednesday morning was that the ad blitz had stopped and the election analysis would peter out in a day or two.

NY will have another election a year from now in November of 2010. Our Governor's term ends on December 31st 2010 and whoever wins takes office on New Year's Day 2011. The current Governor, David Paterson, you may remember, took office when Eliot Spitzer resigned 15 months into his term. Paterson is kinda behind the eight-ball at the moment. There have been stories that Obama (or his people or the DNC) have discouraged Paterson from running. There are lots of people calling Paterson the most ineffective Governor NY has ever had. (Did you ever notice that candidates are only capable of being the best ever or the worst ever? It's never, "Hey, he's kinda, sorta OK, but look at our guy, he's better!") Anyway, I think calling him the worst is overkill. New York has had lots of mediocre Governors. On top of that, I think if they're going to go after Paterson, they ought to just latch onto the scruffy-assed-Yasser-Arafat-Beard issue.

I don't really have any firm opinion about the guy at the moment...at least not in comparison to anybody else who may run. But the guy lost me this morning on one thing and he's going to have to work awfully hard to get me back into the undecided column. Actually, what he needs to do is...nothing...at least for a few months.

Ya see...this morning, less than a week after the previous election ended, this bastard was on TV campaigning for next year's election.

Hey David, any chance you could give it a rest for a couple of months? Pretty please?