Today in Bloomberg Is Stupid News

I'm all a'Twitter(ing)! Brian Lehrer is doing a segment on Bloomberg right now, including where his money goes. Turn on WNYC right now or listen online!

Michael Bloomberg claims that the upcoming election is a referendum on his record. So, what does the record tell us? The New Yorker’s Joyce Purnick has just published the sweeping biography Mike Bloomberg: Money, Power, Politics, which tells his story from childhood in Boston through his controversial bid for a third term. She examines the Bloomberg record and what’s at stake this fall.

I like this Joyce Purnick lady already. Some points being made:

Bloomie gets testy with journalists and refuses to answer when they ask about his third-term grab.

Fact that he was a former chain smoker and has a "constant struggle with weight" may have been the selfish reasons for the smoking ban and the calories on menus (both things I support, but seriously, NYC as B's personal playground? we should all be so lucky).

Is his "improvement of education" actually making kids smarter, or sacrificing learning to testing?

Heyyy, remember when the Republican convention was in NYC back in '04? You know, our city, that's 5-to-1 Democrat, where Bloomberg appeared as a Republican, when the NYPD cracked down big time on anyone protesting? Go America! The lawsuits that resulted cost the city a fortune. Bloomberg still contends protesters should have stayed home.

Whatever happened to the (totally elitist) plan for congestion pricing?

From the excellent comments section: "Since Bloomberg started pursuing politics his reported net worth has gone up 10 times. He has gone from a moderately wealthy man to the richest New Yorker while ignoring proscriptions from the City Conflict of Interest Board about how he should not be involved with his business and its client companies, nearly all of whom also do business with the city. Bloomberg has also, since he started pursuing politics in 1977, has been using his own charities and those run under the auspices of the city for political purposes which has skewed honest debate."

Two words: 2012 Olympics.