Mayor-media mogul Michael Bloomberg apparently learned of President Obama's upcoming visit to New York from the blogs. As we were one of the first bloggers to post on the subject it is a vaguely delicious thought that we knew of Obama's Cooper Union speech on financial reform before the Mayor of the financial capital of the world.
What, pray tell, is going on between Washington and New York City Hall? Once again the Bloomberg administration has been left out of the Obama administration's loop. Is this merely a lack of communication? If so, it should be mended and mended pretty quickly as solid communication between the financial and media capital and the political capital of the United States during a time of war is a serious business indeed.
If what we are all observing is a miscommunication between the two camps -- the POTUS and the Mayor's -- it has happened at least once before. In April last year, a Presidential Boeing 747 jet used to transport President Obama escorted by two Air Force fighter jets circled near where the Towers of the World Trade Center fell. Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, offered an apology at the time. "I take responsibility for that decision. While federal authorities took the proper steps to notify state and local authorities in New York and New Jersey, it’s clear that the mission created confusion and disruption. I apologize and take responsibility for any distress that flight caused.” Swell and lovely.
Borborygmus, however, are the growing frictions between President Obama and Mayor-media mogul Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg's surprise reversal on Attorney General Holder's plan for holding the terror trials in New York City, for example (zing!). Then there is the frictions between the Obama administration and Michael Bloomberg on the recently passed health care legislation. "It does not address the total cost of health care in our country, it does not address the fact that we spend double what they do in Western Europe and have a lower life expectancy, but it does address coverage," Mayor Bloomberg told reporters in March.
Of course, the Mayor has used the argument that he is only looking out for the interests of New Yorkers when he disagrees with a sitting President. That is entirely logical. But from the jaded eye of this blogger's perspective, Michael Bloomberg is looking more and more persnickety -- there is no other word for it -- with regards to this President.
How did it come to this? As recently as last October, the President seemed to be a card-carrying member of "Team Bloomberg," offering one of the most tepid endorsements of the Mayor's general election opponent, Obama's fellow democrat Bill Thompson, humanly possible. How did this relationship fray and why is it fraying?
We will not entertain the possibility that Michael Bloomberg is increasingly gathering a taste for running for President as an Independent in 2012. Heaven forfend!
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