Given the Times‘ disappointing endorsement of Christine “no specific plan to require the richest New Yorkers to pay more in taxes” Quinn for mayor, this odd piece on de Blasio is hardly surprising. It’s central premise suggests that the mayor of New York can only govern adequately by being a narcissistic prick, like Bloomberg or Giuliani.
The Times sums up its position at the top of the piece: “an examination of Mr. de Blasio’s management of Mrs. Clinton’s first run for office, however, reveals that his inclinations — inclusive and easygoing but frequently indecisive — could be agonizingly inefficient in a high-pressure, ever-shifting situation.”
Agonizingly inefficient? Ouch.
Then, they spend the rest of the piece admonishing him for being, brace yourself, a thoughtful team player. Here are some of the more damning and scandalous accusations from the article, “In 2000, a War Room Didn’t Fit de Blasio’s Style.”
Bill de Blasio is:
• “very friendly”
• “a good listener.”
• the former first lady “would not have been senator without him” because “he paved the way for her with many of the prickly political factions in New York State.”
• Inside the campaign, Mr. de Blasio hired as many local staff members as possible who reflected the city’s diversity
• he displayed the kind of calm and deferential temperament that sets him apart from some of the more easily inflamed personalities in the Democratic field
• “Because he doesn’t have an inflated ego, he let people do what they did, instead of having some God-like overreach,” said Melissa Rochester Rosen, who was Mr. de Blasio’s campaign assistant. “He treats everyone as an equal. I always feel I was totally spoiled by him because he was the first person I worked for.”
• As a manager, Mr. de Blasio emphasized teamwork, tossing around a Nerf toy shaped like a buffalo that he picked up in upstate New York, and invoking sports terms.
“He was basically like a coach for this team of strong personalities, and he was like a nice coach,”
• Mr. de Blasio often undertook lengthy consideration of all sides of an issue,
• “He is very much a consensus builder and I do think he goes out of his way to make sure people are heard”
You just know they were referring to the piece internally as the “de Blasio should grow a pair” article. Hopefully, they’ll print another story outlining Quinn’s coziness with developers, her wishy-washiness on stop-and-frisk, her opposition to term limits, or how she “can become mumbly when talking about things that the real estate industry opposes.” We’re not holding our breath.
I think it’s pretty darned sexist of you to object to an article that you summarize as “de Blasio should grow a pair” because the Times endorsed a woman immediately previously. If you actually looked at the character attributes of successful female politicians, from Nancy Pelosi to Hillary Clinton to Golda Meir to Indira Gandhi to Maggie Thatcher, they all had/have personalities that can only be defined as “full of balls.” So, no, it isn’t odd for the same editorial board to support a trait found in most if not all successful female politicians and to support the chief female candidate for this office. Indeed, it is only reasonable.
Team De Blasio! F the Times.
Wait, after reading the article, I retract my earlier comment. “Smear” piece really? I thought it was reasonably fair.