Has Mayor Bloomberg just started trolling everyone lately? Those pithy Newt Gingrich comments, that turtle-jiggling State Of The City video? Does he even care whether everyone loves him still? During his snow press conference yesterday, Bloomberg inexplicably took the opportunity to show off the local cheese curds and Titletown’s Sno-Cap root beer he plundered from Green Bay. And now he's set his sights on city Republicans, telling the Post that he's pretty sure his sucessor will be a Democrat: “ It’s really hard to see the Democratic primary next year not being the real election.”
"The advantage of party loyalty is impossible to overstate. That’s why I never believed a third-party candidate can win, and that’s why I think it’s very hard to see a Republican coming along. Who would have thought John Liu being out of it? I assume he is," Bloomberg said. The sad state of Liu aside, Bloomberg thinks that party loyalty will lead to one of the four leading Democratic contenders becoming mayor: Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer or former Comptroller Bill Thompson.
Bloomberg admits that he couldn't have won as a third party candidate unless he had vast resource of money at his disposal: “I didn’t waste my money,” he reflected. “If I could have spent less, I would have." He does think Ray Kelly would make for a fine mayor, if he just had enough money to run: "“The problem he has is the amount of money you’ve got to spend to get over not being the Democratic candidate. It’s really hard to see how you would raise it." Maybe Kelly could raise cash by putting out a strongly-worded memo?
