Bill de Blasio includes pictures of his African-American wife and mixed race son in his campaign pics, so he’s obviously running a racist campaign, according to Bloomberg:
Then there’s Bill de Blasio, who’s become the Democratic front-runner. He has in some ways been running a class-warfare campaign—
Class-warfare and racist.Racist?
Well, no, no, I mean* he’s making an appeal using his family to gain support. I think it’s pretty obvious to anyone watching what he’s been doing. I do not think he himself is racist. It’s comparable to me pointing out I’m Jewish in attracting the Jewish vote. You tailor messages to your audiences and address issues you think your audience cares about.
SteveM points out that Bloomberg went to Israel to enhance his standing with the Jewish community in 2009, and Buzzfeed has a whole bunch of other examples of Bloomberg using his religious background in his campaign, which means that he ran an anti-Semitic campaign but is not really an anti-Semite.
Gex
Not to mention politicians routinely use photos of themselves with their family to promote themselves. I guess it is only appropriate if the family is not mixed race.
This parallels my experience as a gay person. You get accused of being political simply for living your life.
Bloomberg’s an ass.
lojasmo
Looking forward to enlightenment from our local artist.
aimai
White people are normal. They are the default category. So Blasio is, obviously, some kind of racist for including in his own family some kind of “othery” people like that. Why is he making us think about race? Its so divisive.
aimai
@Gex: Whoops. I missed my chance to accuse the candidate of forcing his mixed race child down my throat.
dmsilev
@aimai: Did you know that our current President fathered not one but TWO black children? It’s true! Look it up.
Seanly
It’s only class warfare when the guy talks about taxing the rich.
Bloomberg is an idiot. He’s welcome to spend hundreds of millions against guns.
Shakezula
Of course de Blasio is racist. He’s merely using his family in photo ops when he should be asking a police officer to violate their 4th Amendment rights!
The other problem with Bloomberg’s statement is this means de Blasio of all the candidates should hide his family (which wouldn’t be racist at all!) and/or that marrying an African-American woman and having a child is somehow cheating.
p.s. Is it me or is this statement the sort of shit that comes from an asshole who knows he is going down and in his desperation, starts speaking his mind, which in turn causes him to sink faster?
Xecky Gilchrist
@lojasmo: Looking forward to enlightenment from our local artist.
I’m not, but we get to endure it anyway.
For some reason a lot of my favorite blogs have a troll-tolerance policy, even though it makes a ton of threads big long strings of troll scat and people yelling at the troll and ten times as many people saying that people yelling at the troll are st00pid, but this is the first place I’ve been where one of the more annoying examples of trollitude is specifically protected by the blog owner.
gogol's wife
Wow. I saw that quotation yesterday but didn’t have a chance to really read it. I didn’t get that it was Bloomberg who said that (sometimes the gnomic referentiality of the FP-ers here works against quick comprehension). What an ass.
OT — or maybe not — Today I was driving on my way to church behind a big, sleek, black Mercedes sedan, with a distinguished silver-haired gentleman behind the wheel. The license plate number was “DFH-1.” I laughed so hard I almost drove off the road. That’s what reading too much BJ does for you.
c u n d gulag
@dmsilev:
With a black woman, no less!!!
bemused
@gogol’s wife:
Great story.
schrodinger's cat
What’s next for Bloomberg, after his mayoral term, I mean other than giving cringe worthy interviews?
Here is a better story out of NYC.
dmsilev
@Shakezula:
It’s assholic without a doubt, but Bloomberg isn’t running for yet another term so no matter what he’s out. Sounds like straight-up assholery to me.
Villago Delenda Est
@c u n d gulag:
“I think Mayor Bloomberg said de Blasio’s wife is near”
geg6
@Xecky Gilchrist:
THIS.
Having been permanently banned from two blogs for simply saying some people were assholes, not on those blogs but on my own blog which is not affiliated or linked with those blogs that banned me, I am shocked at what Cole will tolerate from certain trolls (well, only one really) but then goes on to ban some commenters that are simply driven to hyperbole by said trolls. It makes me wonder why BoB got the permanent heave ho when at least he was entertaining. Present ones, not so much.
Anya
Bloomberg sounds like a teabaggers here. Even his outstanding performance during the ground Zero fiasco will not change my negative views of him. He’s horrible on race and he’s so clueless it’s sad. It looks like he’s offended by the reality of an interracial family. He cannot understand it, so to him that’s not comparable to enhancing his Jewish identity or even appealing to Jewish vote (which he sees as normal). The interracial family is so foreign to him that he’s shocked Mr. de Blasio is showcasing that kid with the weird hair (greatest afro ever).
geg6
@Villago Delenda Est:
Heh. First good laugh of the day.
Bloomberg is pissed because DeBlasio is ripping the 1%ers a new asshole. He’s lashing out and his classist, racist slip is showing.
geg6
@Anya:
Yeah, love his ‘Fro. Best one I’ve seen since the 70s.
Elizabelle
I guess that means DeBlasio is winning?
NYTimes headline recently that he was ahead, don’t know by how much. NYTimes endorsed Christine Quinn.
PS: In my experience, any use of “class warfare” is pure projection by the speaker.
bemused
So many of the filthy rich are assholes dripping with contempt and think they can say anything. Why wouldn’t they when they do get away with it so often?
Villago Delenda Est
A major part of this has to do with the fact that de Blasio has hit on some winning ideas with the bulk of the NYC electorate and 1% vermin like Bloomberg don’t like that. de Blasio is looking more and more like he’s got a solid shot at being the next mayor, and the parasite 1% are not happy.
moonbat
@Anya: Yeah, Bloomberg seems to be saying, “Why couldn’t De Blasio have had the decency to try to make the kid look whiter?”
piratedan
I guess Bloomberg is afraid of his successor using “stop and frisk” logic against anyone who drives a car worth more than 40,000 retail because it stands to reason that they “had to have screwed somebody” in order to afford that car. Maybe he’ll start to understand why his current enforcement of his policy is a violation of civil rights.
Keith P
That…bastard. How dare he campaign on being a family man!
Suffern ACE
So, who is going to write the soul searching pseudo lefty critique that questions whether de Blasio is indeed on some level unknown to us a racist, homophobic, mysogynist, by including his family in ads. I’ll go with Slate, but it could be Salon.
Suzanne
@Gex: Definitely.
This is the sort of thing that makes me think that anti-Semitism is really in its death throes as an American social force, though. If Bloomberg still thought of himself as a persecuted minority race, he wouldn’t think of other people being of a different race as some sort of trick or political ploy. But he’s thinking like a clueless white person.
Anya
P.S. New York Magazine added the “Well, no, no,” part after Bloomberg’s office protested. That part of the interview was inaudible but they still added it to lessen the damage. So, even Bloomberg realized that he made an ass of himself (or his PR).
aimai
@Anya: I think a (certain kind of ) white politician sees “gayness” and “blackness” or “hispanicness” as an unfair add-on to a competitor white politician. Like: “oh, fuck him! He’s already got the (ethnic/sexual orientation) thing sewn up!” It used to be that a white politician who didn’t belong to a particular ethnic community could round up a few representatives and show up for whatever their equivalent of St. Patrick’s day was: Haitian Day, Gay Pride, etc… You were running against other white guys and no one had any advantage in the identity politics sweepstakes. Then you might have to run against an actual gay guy, or an actual black guy (David Dinkins etc…) but you had accustomed yourself to that as a problem and you could attack it in various ways which were well understood.
Now you get some kind of hybrid monster: a white politician who has gone ahead and married into a potentially desirable ethnic voting block. Its like stealing! Its an unfair advantage that de Blasio has like (Rush Limbaugh argued) Michael J. Fox has an unfair advantage actually being sick or Obama has being raised “white” with (some) elite advantage but aligning himself with the black community. It makes it hard for someone like Bloomberg and his candidates to run as a plausible candidate for everyone and it makes it hard for them to attack their opponents without attacking the entire ethnic voting block.
Just One More Canuck
@Anya: it’s in the same league as Oscar Gamble
WereBear
Since when is actually being an oppressed minority such an advantage that opponents have to whine about it?
But you know how it goes. When stupid is all you have to sell, you shine it up and throw it out there.
One thing about Elmore Leonard, recently passed from this mortal coil, is how wonderfully he wrote about the shortcomings of the rich villains in his novels. He nails their self-centered, clueless, snotty little selves in just a few lines of dialogue.
MomSense
Don’t most politicians spotlight their families?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Sadly telling that it’s the ink-stained wretch who introduces the phrase to the conversation.
MomSense
@gogol’s wife:
Ha! I was canvassing yesterday and saw a license plate in the driveway that said FSM and got all excited thinking wooohoooo this should be fun. 5 seconds into the conversation it was a big disappointment.
rdldot
@geg6: I miss BoB. I thought he was entertaining, and never did really figure out if he was serious, or just messing with us, which was part of the entertainment. He got kicked out of OBWI, but they put up with him a lot longer than I thought they would. Things are pretty strict over there.
Villago Delenda Est
@piratedan:
Not likely, as only the 1% have any rights. The rest are serfs.
Just One More Canuck
@rdldot: I even miss Matoko – when she maintained her focus, she had some really interesting insights. Our most prominent current troll just seems to enjoy being an asshole for its own sake.
Anya
@aimai: How does being black worked out for black republicans. Nikki Tinker tried to use being black to her advantage against Steve Cohen but the majority black voters voted for the white guy who shared their views. People just have fucked up views about minority voters. They think they don’t vote values but they vote for the identity. Someone should ask Michael Steel how that worked for him.
@Just One More Canuck: Had to google him. Judging solely on google images, not even close.
WereBear
@Anya: Minority candidates with anti-minority views are just there to make their voters feel protected from accusations of prejudice.
They never seem to fool the actual minorities. :)
Bruuuuce
This from the guy who not only thinks his stop and frisk program isn’t racist, but should be stopping a higher percentage of minorities and leave the white guys alone.
Also, too, DiBlasio’s daughter hits it square on: “Everything I do for the campaign is my decision. And I think that, or at least I suspect … 20 years ago my dad did not know he was running for mayor and he did not seek to marry a black woman to put her on display.”
I look forward to going to the polls on Tuesday, and voting for DiBlasio, as has been my plan all along.
geg6
@rdldot:
What does it say about the creativity of our current trolls that we’re lamenting BoB?
Baud
@geg6:
Winningest comment of the day.
Anya
@Bruuuuce: Me too!
In addition to all of his douchey behavior, I think Bloomberg is just angry because he bought sell-out Quinn and he the voters gave him the finger. Sucks to be Quinn.
Donut
I hope Bloomberg finally takes Little Tommy Friedman up on his Awesomest Idea Evar and runs for president as an indie. If he runs (I don’t think he really wants to, fwiw) he will get a quick lesson in humility when blue and purple states in the West and upper Midwest reject his sorry ass and teach him about building and maintaining a truly diverse electoral coalition. He wouldn’t know the first thing about how to appeal to anyone outside of the NE and I suspect is too arrogant to listen to quality political hacks who would know what to do.
Shorter me: Fuck him. That’s all.
Anya
From the Buzzfeed link:
How is this even the same? One is campaigning with his OWN family, like all politicians. The other is saying “look at me! I am Jewish!” So, was de Blasio supposed to hide his family? I think they’re angry because the ad that featured his son was right on target and got a lot of attention.
Jay C
@Bruuuuce: @Anya:
Me three: we had been wavering about who to support (outside of ABQ, of course), but DiBlasio’s jump in the polls made it pretty certain. And as a middle-finger to Mayor Mike and his Designated Successor, even sweeter.
Bruuuuce
@Anya: Yep. She got paid to give Mayor Mike the third term he swore up and down he’d never run for when he supported term limits, under the assumption that he’d then buy her the office. Sadly for her (and thankfully for the rest of us), he can’t.
I look forward to the main race, in which DiBlasio features ads showing how Joe Lhota would have let the trains kill the kittens who’d wandered onto the tracks.
MattF
How about the weird and unreasonable possibility of making a political argument, e.g, news story says: “Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg said he disagrees with Mr. DiBlasio, because…”
Haha. Just kidding.
Bruuuuce
@Jay C: My feeling all along is that I’d have voted for any Democrat named Bill. I prefer DiBlasio, but Thompson would have been fine, too. Loved his 24-hour campaign swing through the city, but his record is good enough that I could support him.
WereBear
Are you telling me he’s a “fighting” Dem?
I’ll practically move there just to vote for him.
gelfling545
@MomSense: I was driving behind a car that had what at first appeared to be the usual fish symbol as sported by many who feel that other drivers need to know their religion. In response the Darwin fish with legs has become modestly popular but on closer inspection this symbol was FSM portrayed in all noodley goodness. Amazing, it was.
Bruuuuce
@WereBear: Yes, I am. He’s done a good job as NYC Public Advocate, which is pretty much the definition of “fighting pol.” He was instrumental in forcing SUNY Downstate to keep open Long Island Community Hospital in Brooklyn (even getting arrested along the way in nonviolent protests). I’m not sure whether he intends to (or can) fight to keep Interfaith Hospital open, as well, but has officially reported that it would be a major blow if it closes.
His focus is on rebuilding the middle class, and given his record, I tend to believe he not only means it, but has a clue about how to go about it.
Aimai
@WereBear: yup.
FlipYrWhig
@gogol’s wife:
It’s like that Don Henley song came to life! Don’t look back, you can never look back.
Joey Maloney
@geg6: What does it say about the gotten-into-your-headedness of the current troll that this thread is substantially about him even though he’s not here?
MomSense
@gelfling545:
I am going to have to look and see if I can buy a noodley goodness FSM bumper sticker. That is amazing.
Ahh says fywp
@piratedan: you win the thread, good sir, and ur internets are in the mail
Ahh says fywp
@Anya: The way Bloomberg’s people attacked deBlasio’s wife (in a demented bid to make Quinn look like the only choice to a certain breed of voter) was just ugly (and bi-erasing, so fuckton o’ fail, dipshits). De Blasio in a more genteel race might be seen as exploiting his family, but the Quinnberg media machine PUT them into it.
Also, Dante is the criminal underclass Bloomie and Kelly were peeing their pants over. I applaud his parents for giving him a forum!
Another Holocene Human
@Bruuuuce:
That’s what they want you to think, like when Obama’s grandparents and Malcolm X conspired to plant those birth announcements in two Hawai’i newspapers so their Manchurian could be slipped under American’s noses and rammed down their throats!!!!!1111
Bruuuuce
@Another Holocene Human: If it’s NYC, it would be Rev. Sharpton, not Malcolm X, nu?
Phoenix Woman
Michael Bloomberg has the look and manner of someone who has never, ever once been kicked in the balls for being an asshat.