I'm a pretty big fan of Bloomberg.  He's one of the few politicians these days that governs like a mature adult.  He's not vindictive, not photo-op driven, not trying to stir up trouble like Rudy did. He's balanced the books and kept crime low without so much of the brulaization of minorities that was rampant in Rudy's mayorship.

Although New York is generally progressive, at the end of the day they like their mayors competent above all else.  That's why Bloomberg will win easily.  And I definitely consider him a RINO.

All of this could be avoided with IRV.

"If New York City had instant runoff voting, the city would save millions of dollars this year and guarantee there was majority support for the Democratic candidate for mayor," charged Gloria Mattera today. Mattera is the Green Party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President.

"Instant runoff voting (IRV)encourages voters to vote for the candidate they really want, without worrying that their vote will help elect someone they don't like," added Mattera. "In multi-candidate races such as this year's Democratic primary, IRV ensures that the winner is supported by the majority of voters, instead of just getting more votes than anyone else. The Green Party supports IRV as a way to increase voter participation."  

An instant runoff ballot allows voters to rank multiple candidates in order of preference. If no one gets a majority in the first round of ballot counting, the candidate with the fewest votes is thrown out, and the second choices on those ballots are counted. The process continues until one candidate has received a majority. San Francisco uses IRV for most citywide offices, and Ireland and Australia use it for major elections. More information about IRV is at http://www.fairvote.org.

Don't give me the "but-he-had-to-he's-a-Republican" crap.  George W. Bush is without exaggeration the worst President that this country has ever had, and his re-election is one of the worst catastrophes to have ever hit us and I am still depressed over it.  Because of this, I hold every fucking idiot responsible and liable who did anything from voting for Bush to actively campaign for him.

The following is an excerpt from Michael Bloomberg's speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention:

For the full speech, click here.

'Nuff said.  Michael Bloomberg supported George Bush in 2004.  He must be stopped.  I don't give a shit about anything else he has done as Mayor of New York, any Democrat would be better!

More Dems support Bloomberg than any other candidate, even "Dems".  Are they all fools?  There's some reason why Bloomberg is extremely popular among New York Dems.

I think the main reason NYC Dems have elected Rudy and Bloomberg is that they are turned off by the Dem party's being completely mired in machine politics.  

Possibly my feelings about Bloomberg/Ferrer comes from the fact that I'm not a progressive that comes from the union side of the movement (I come more from the social issues side).  I'm always a bit suspicious of the unions, particularly in the context of municipal public employees.  Many, not all, but many New York city workers do very very well for the skills their jobs entail.  Compared to other cities, New York has a lot of public employees and they get paid a lot.  That's one reason why taxes in NYC are outrageous: federal + state + city taxes are over 50% of marginal income for most people.

The fact that Bloomberg brought the city into a surplus to me doesn't seem like a good reason to throw the surplus back to the municipal workers.

That said, I can understand how a progressive from the labor side might have very different feelings about Bloomberg.  I don't think he's gone out of his way to destroy unions or anything, but I don't think anyone would claim he's "pro-worker."  He's a businessman, and he is largely pro-business in his economic policies.

The feeling is that even if somehow Freddy ends up below 40%, in order for Anthony to possibly win he would have to bloody the party,cause  major racial strains,and basically hand the election to Bloomberg in November. And the consensus is that when the absentee ballots are counted Ferrer will be over 40% anyhow. Weiner surged late and absentee ballots are filled out earlier.

Dropping out now will generate good will from Freddy's organization.  Selfishly, I wanted him to fight it out, cause Freddy is a hack-and-a-half, and he deserved some of the back stabbing action he gave to Mark Green in 2001.  Bloomberg will deservedly coast to victory anyway.

A few other things. Bloomberg certainly isn't a RINO. He's raised millions of dollars for the GOP -- the real GOP, not the fake Susan Collins, Lincoln Chafee GOP that doesn't really exist. He didn't have to do that, but he did. He also personally wrote a check to the GOP for 7 million dollars for their convention here, and personally made that entire week possibly. Bush's entire race was based on 9/11. That's the week he passed Kerry in the polls. Had that convention not been held in New York, or had Bloomberg had the balls to denounce the unbelievably shameless and cynical political exploitation of this city's tragedy by Bush, there's an argument to be made Bush would not have won. Bloomberg let Bush use his constituents in the worst way. He didn't have to, but he did.

You want to hold Chertoff, Brown, Bush, Cheney responsible for their decisions? Hold Bloomberg responsible for his.

Then there his obsession with stadiums -- the worst possible use for public space and public money there is.

Oh, and his poll numbers? Do you know anything about politics? He's already spent 40 million dollars. Do you know what happens when you spend lots of money? Your poll numbers go up. To mention his vaunted "high" poll numbers without mentioning his unprecedent spending is simply either intentionally deceptive or just stupid.

By the way, before his most recent spending campaign, his numbers were in the 40's -- not strong for an incumbent. He's now spent over 100 million dollars and has yet to stand for election a second time.

This is a man who outspent Mark Green by 30 million dollars and won by 36,000 votes.

It's understandable that the moronic media will discuss Bloomberg without discussing his money, but it's beneath this site.

So it was more about the media coverage than your post, Scott. That, and the fact that I have many Dem. friends voting for Bloomberg and it's driving me crazy.

So, apologies...