The blog post Scripting News: Mike I thought I knew yuz illustrates how character narrative becomes a misleading shorthand for some political truths. Winer is suprised by Bloomberg’s defense of Wall Street’s role in the financial crisis triggered by his distaste for Occupy Wall Street:
Finally we had an adult in there, someone who is smart, and because he’s super-rich, didn’t have to sell out to win his office. He could stay grounded in the truth. Sure, he made mistakes. Everyone does. But for the most he was doing a good job of running a very complicated place.
But now this OWS thing has really sent him for a loop. He’s lying. I gotta believe that’s what it is. Because I just can’t accept that he is so stupid that he actually believes the Republican bullshit he’s saying.
Winer discount’s Bloomberg’s business and political practices prior to OWS.
Bloomberg thrives on Wall Street even as he holds office. It wouldn’t be good business for Mayor Bloomberg to criticize his clients. He moved from the 142nd richest person in the world to the 17th in the end of the aughts and 12th by 2011. This is due to Bloomberg LP the financial media & news firm which he owns 82% of and is a vendor delivering 300,000+ terminals to financial professionals through the flagship terminal product alone. You see, before and during his tenure as a Mayor, he was a vendor to most of Wall Street. I imagine he will be one after. On top of that, any New York mayor enjoys a tax base inflated by Wall Street and doesn’t want to push those dollars away.
I would guess Bloomberg became a Republican in 2001 because he was fine with the social landscape on a state and national level (the sum total of his left leanings) and felt a need to implement more Republican policy. The move was as politically prudent as it was electorally convenient. I think Bloomberg loves to cultivate this political image of “independence”, especially with recent criticism of GOP candidates:
“We have presidential candidates who don’t believe in science,” Bloomberg said, without singling out dubious Republican candidates directly.
“I mean, just think about it, can you imagine a company of any size in the world where the CEO said ‘oh I don’t believe in science’ and that person surviving to the end of that day? Are you kidding me? It’s mind-boggling!”
Bloomberg grew coy when asked which candidate he was talking about.
“I don’t know,” he said. “You can check the presidential candidates’ speeches… I don’t have time to go do it but all their speeches, everything they said.”
It’s mind boggling that Bloomberg can say that with a straight face when the candidate he endorsed and supported in 2004 believed the “jury was out” on evolution, put addressing climate change well on the back burner and was entrenching the US into a fools war in Iraq.
Couple that with NYPD’s treatment of protesters under Bloomberg during the 2004 Republican convention in New York, well prior to Occupy Wall Street and the fact of the matter is you shouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t see Wall Street as run amok and OWS as useful. If you are forced to govern, especially for three terms, you become a partisan on every issue.