Morning After

Well, here we are: another all-too-believable election result. Here in the Gotham Bureau, we realize that it's probably silly to express much surprise at our fellow citzens’ choice. With the exception of the monstrous context of recent events, so much of the mayoral electoral outcome echoes last November’s triumph of confusion. Mark Green insisted on turning his governmental competence and political experience from an asset into a liability, and his self-confidence into arrogance, reminding us increasingly of Al Gore; Bloomberg’s affability and just-folks manner has provided an effective mask for both his membership in the Ruling Class and his goofy misconceptions about government; the recollection of a feckless, doofus Princeling (with a well-financed team of shrewd politicos) capturing the White House was unavoidable.

Where our naiveté kicked in: all the bets in this office (which favored Green by a hair) unconsciously factored in what we assumed would be a broadly shared dislike for Bloomberg’s breaking all records for campaign spending, saturating the airwaves with commercials, mailing videotapes to thousands of households (one came for one of my neighbors the other day), and generally equating having a load of money with the ability to manage the complexity of the city. Anyone who views with alarm our nation’s increasing swing towards becoming a Media Oligarchy might have (as we did) notice that Mark Green’s naked (and unpleasant to face) ambition has at least powered a career of public service, while Bloomberg merely represents the view that the rich must know a lot about everything (even if what they say suggests they know absolutely nothing), because they own a lot of everything.

Sigh. We know, of course, that there were probably more important reasons than people’s strange trust in the Big Bizness Mogul to explain why this happened: because of September 11, and his reassuring conduct since that date, Giuliani’s endorsement of his fellow Republican carried a unique weight for most people. Green got tangled in a very, very sensitive time with Fernando Ferrer in the primary, and whatever was left of the base that Democrats count on was pulled apart on the spot. Green never really recovered, and it was only his huge lead going into September that even left things close. Nobody knows much of anything, of course, about how Bloomberg will choose to run the city. Here at the File, we hope that our (reflexive) pessimism about that unknown quality is as off-target as our election predictions were.