The Jaker

why should Dems care if Bloomberg wins a second term? Partly because Bloomberg, for all his leftward feints, has at times been quite the loyal GOP partisan. He has defended the Iraq War, a hugely symbolic gesture coming from the mayor of the city attacked on September 11. He’s raised millions of dollars for the national GOP. During last year’s GOP convention in New York he presided over the highly questionable arrests of more than 1,500 protesters, in effect placing the GOP’s desire for a peaceful convention above his own constituents’ right to peaceful protest. Those gestures alone make one wonder just where Bloomberg’s political sympathies really lie. If he’s really a liberal Dem in GOP garb, as many of his supporters insist, why does he so often lend help and cover to those who should be his ideological enemies?

[Republicans have] portrayed Democrats (with a bit of help from the Democrats themselves, admittedly) as unfit to carry out the fundamentals of governing: managing the country’s national-security affairs abroad and keeping Americans safe at home. For New Yorkers to elect a GOP mayor sends a powerful message to the rest of the country: Even the ultimate liberals -- that is, New Yorkers who are in sync with the Dems on just about everything -- don’t trust them to run their own city.