Did Bloomberg's "Muscle" scare Obama away from the NYC race?

[Smarmie Doofus]

And if so... does this not raise new doubts about the president's... I don't know... *fortitude*, in addition to his wisdom? And if so, does anyone else begin to see a disturbing *pattern* on the president's part? To wit: backing away, pretty consistently, from confrontation with powerful ( ok, I'll say it: *moneyed*) interests. And not just moneyed interests; open confrontation with cultural conservatives on GLBT and related issues.

Yup. I know, he's temperamentally a moderate. Occasionally a self-proclaimed "fierce advocate" when it suits his purpose, but stylistically, non-confrontational. But doesn't this begin to look less and less like political savvy or an effective stratagem and more and more like just plain cowardice?

The following disturbing analysis of the NYC race appeared in the hard copy edition as "Bloomberg Used Hidden Muscle to try to Stop his Campaign rivals at the Door." Whoever edits the online edition decided to give it a cheerier title, it does appear.

We would likely have taken back NYC City Hall had Obama enthused ever so slightly in public about our candidate, Mr. Thompson. But Bloomberg got to him. ( Sorry: is there any other way to put it?)

The president's timidity is wearing thin. Calculated, calibrated political posturing is one thing... and to some degree to be expected. ( maybe even hoped for) But I was hoping for some variety of the promised "transformational" statesman. But that is not what's described below. I worry that we've elected something more akin to a feckless, frightened jackrabbit.

Truly, I hope I'm wrong. But there's cause for concern. It's a *pattern*.


:Chief Factor in Mayor’s Race: Bloomberg Influence


By MICHAEL BARBARO
Published: November 3, 2009
The White House switchboard lit up with calls from Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s emissaries several weeks ago with a message that was polite but firm: The mayor is going to win re-election, they said. We think the president should stay out of the race.




Todd Heisler/The New York Times
William C. Thompson Jr.'s campaign surprised the Bloomberg camp by missing what were seen as opportunities to attack.
Members of Mr. Bloomberg’s inner circle were especially worried because they knew President Obama planned to visit the region to campaign with Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey, and he would face pressure to support the Democratic candidate, William C. Thompson Jr., the city’s first black comptroller.

At the request of the mayor’s aides, Geoffrey Canada, chief executive of the Harlem Children’s Zone, telephoned Valerie Jarrett, senior adviser to the president.

“I know she is close to the president and has his ear,” said Mr. Canada, whose nonprofit group has received $600,000 in personal donations from Mr. Bloomberg.

A close adviser to the mayor, who stayed neutral in the presidential race, described the campaign’s pitch to the White House this way: “He didn’t pick sides in your race. Don’t pick sides in his.”

The president’s office agreed, and in early October alerted Bloomberg aides that it would offer only a halfhearted Friday afternoon endorsement for Mr. Thompson, and Mr. Obama did not campaign with him.

In the race for mayor of New York City, there was one campaign on the surface. But there was a more dramatic effort, unfolding behind the scenes, that really mattered: ensuring, through money and muscle, that Mr. Bloomberg faced no serious obstacle to winning a third term.

The critical moments were not widely watched debates or speeches, but triumphs celebrated privately inside the cavernous Midtown Manhattan headquarters of Bloomberg 2009: the elbowing out of Representative Anthony D. Weiner and the neutralizing of any powerful Democrat who could hurt the Bloomberg campaign.

Underlying it all was a sophisticated strategy, and at times intimidating tactics, seemingly at odds with Mr. Bloomberg’s image as a nonpolitician, that his aides sketched out during a marathon meeting in the fall of 2008. It was a surgical, at times even brutal approach, but it seemed oddly detached from the mood of electorate.

This account is drawn from dozens of interviews with top aides, consultants and friends of both candidates, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity in order to talk candidly without inflaming two powerful public officials.

In the days after the mayor had emerged, victorious, more at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/04/nyregion/04ticktock.html