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Tag Archive for 'Mike Bloomberg'

Vote Burns

Published by William Beutler on December 6, 2009 in Seriously, Television and William Beutler. 1 Comment

CNN.com’s Political Ticker reports that the #1 write-in candidate in last month’s New York City mayoral election was none other than Charles Montgomery Burns, the fictional, 81-year-old (or 100 or 104) vindictive, ambitious, cruel billionaire owner of the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant in that anchor of late-20th century American / Western popular culture and social commentary, “The Simpsons”:

According to records released by the New York City Board of Elections, the cartoon billionaire received 27 write-in votes out of the 299 that were cast. … Burns and the rest of the write-in candidates ultimately lost to real-life billionaire and incumbent mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Disappointingly, CNN does not attempt to provide an explanation. It would not be hard to find: Montgomery Burns was the focus of an Internet-driven joke campaign this fall intended to parody Bloomberg’s third basically inevitable term (and shady maneuvers to secure it).

Even Monty Burns. would be a better mayor — I think that was the joke.

As of now, BurnsforMayor.com remains up, and if you have a few moments to spare, I suggest perusing “Monty’s Plan” for New York City. Oh well. Maybe in 2013.

simpsons-burns-mayor

At Least it Pays the Bills

Published by William Beutler on May 24, 2007 in National Politics, Rhetoric and White House '08. Closed

In today’s Politico, analyst Roger Simon throws water on the media-invented boomlet for potential presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg. He makes a few smart observations, the best of which explains why self-funding his campaign may actually be an impediment to building a base of support:

[W]hen voters give you money, they often protect their investment by voting for you. When you finance your own campaign, you don’t build that base of support.

And while I tend to agree with the overall point of his column — Bloomberg is too smart to blow a billion dollars on a hopeless candidacy — it does contain this bit of unmitigated silliness:

We have elected people from all kinds of professions to the presidency. George Washington was a surveyor, Abraham Lincoln was a rail-splitter, Andrew Johnson was a tailor, Harry Truman was a haberdasher, Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer and Ronald Reagan was an actor. But we have never elected a mayor.

Say what? Simon deliberately cites early, pre-political vocations by these former presidents and, tongue presumably in cheek, compares them favorably to Bloomberg’s current place of employment, Manhattan’s City Hall. Except Washington also was a wartime general, Lincoln was a lawyer and member of the House, Johnson was a member of the House, Senate and a governor before becoming Vice President, Truman was a farmer, judge and senator, and both Carter and Reagan were both governors.

Simon is correct that a mayor has never been elected president, though that is the highest public office attained by Giuliani as well. Citing Bloomberg’s pre-political career, as a businessman, would keep the symmetry, although it surely doesn’t sound as goofy as “rail-splitter” or “haberdasher.”

On the other hand, it would put Bloomberg in the company of Herbert Hoover and George W. Bush. Not exactly exalted company — which might have been a slightly better argument, without the contrived goofiness of reducing presidential employment histories to caricatures.