HE'D BE A GREAT MAYOR - OF FANTASYLAND

New York Post ^ | 01/12/05 | ANDREA PEYSER

[conservative in nyc]

HIS face looked pinched and ghostly pale. And the words he pushed out of his mouth frequently tangled his tongue, an endearing quirk for some politicians.

But for Mayor Bloomberg — who even referred to "Mark Twain" as "Train" — the necessity of communication only seemed to make him annoyed.

---Snip---

I would love to visit this gorgeous oasis called New York. In halting and occasionally mangled terms, he painted a picture of this city as a land where public schools are all but fixed, businesses are free to flourish, and — get this — you will get a tax break.

Some in this city may have forgiven the mayor for gouging working New Yorkers with exorbitant tax increases. But not me.

---snip---

If the mayor was honest he would have said something like this:

"I'm sorry. I screwed up by bringing back the sales tax on clothing under $110 — I don't own any, you see. And now Albany likes that money. I'm sorry I was too busy sucking up to Gov. Pataki during his re-election bid. Now it's too late to demand he give this city some of our tax money back, maybe impose a commuter tax.

"I'm sorry I'm such a wimp I couldn't squeeze a dollar from the unions.

"But hey — if you don't re-elect me, I give you this three-word curse: Mayor Freddy Ferrer.

"Suckers."

[conservative in nyc]

This pretty much sums up the dilemma of voting in New York City. Mayor Bloomberg is a tax-raising, cigarette snatching liberal who doesn't deserve re-election. He's certainly not a fiscal conservative, let alone an social conservative.

But the alternatives are much, much worse. Giuliani could theoretically run again, but he won't. There's no other prominent Republican that can win the election. And the Democrats never met a tax they didn't like or a program they could cut.

[econ_grad]

Things need to get really really bad in NYC for something to change. Bloomberg should be defeated. Turn over NYC to a real liberal who will make things so bad that a conservative will be the only answer. By conservative, I don't mean someone socially conservative. Just someone who understands taxes and spending.

[watsonfellow]

This is akin to Sophie's Choice....the correct answer for a conservative is to vote for neither, since Bloomberg's replacement while marginally worse for the city would most likely spark a backlash.....Bloomberg is the worst of both worlds, increased government spending, increased social liberalism, increased taxes....and he is a Republican.........Conservatives and conservatives should refuse to make this choice and opt for neither.