March 14, 2007

Rudy G. - America's Mayor? As If. New Yorkers Prefer Bloomberg

From the files of the quite predictable - actual New Yorkers (those who actually had to deal with them) think Michael Bloomberg has been a better mayor than Rudy Giuliani was. And that's by a wide margin - Bloomberg leads Giuliani on that question in every borough, in every racial group - heck Bloomberg even leads Giuliani among Republicans.

New Yorkers would also rather see Bloomberg as president. On that question Republican New Yorkers would rather see Giuliani serving at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave - but in terms of New Yorkers as a whole, they'd rather see Bloomberg in the White House, by a margin of 46-31.

Posted by armand at March 14, 2007 08:28 AM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics


Comments

Well, Bloomberg inherited a city that was in much better shape than the one Giuliani started with. And memories on that front are pretty short.

Posted by: jacflash at March 14, 2007 12:07 PM | PERMALINK

Eh, maybe. But Giuliani was mayor only about 5 years ago. People might not have the freshest memories of 13 years ago - but they've likely not forgotten Giuliani's stewardship of the city as a whole.

And of course early Giuliani successes might not only be Giuliani's (you know, the whole Bill Bratton thing).

Posted by: Armand at March 15, 2007 09:58 AM | PERMALINK

Giulianai presided over a renaissance of sorts in New York, but I was back east for a portion of his pre-9/11 tenure, and I was not alone in being highly put off by his methods. Aside from those pro-corporate things he did -- which inter alia renovated Times Square -- as to the merits of which people disagreed, his Street Crimes Unit was very broadly reviled, as were his efforts to make government as opaque as the law would allow and, more generally, his autocratic style writ large. Furthermore, although New York isn't exactly the Moral Majority, his regrettable personal foibles were ongoing sources of derision and chatter in the years just prior to the attack.

He was a very divisive Mayor prior to 9/11, and he got a lot of credit (and in my opinion far more credit than he deserved) for giving the Ground Zero speech that in general any mayor would have delivered had he found himself in that position. When New York takes a hit like that, of course the mayor will stand up before a national audience and offer energizing bromides about unity and strength and generosity and resilience, emotions any proud people would have arrived at without any guidance from their leaders. In that sense, however ambivalent I am about the word given the larger context, Giuliani was very lucky politically.

Those results don't surprise me at all. Although short memories may be somewhat to blame, they don't tell the story by half.

Posted by: moon at March 15, 2007 11:58 AM | PERMALINK
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