Obviously, this liberal schlub was disappointed by yesterday's election results in New Jersey and Vriginia. (I wasn't too surprised about Virginia, but even though I knew it was going to be tight in Jersey, I figured there was no way my neighbors to the south could pull the lever for an asshole as big as Chris Christie.)But I was pleasantly surprised that Doug Hoffman was defeated in upstate NY by what's-his-face.
The bigger surprise was that the race for mayor was so close -- and this was also a pleasant one.
I took the coward's way out and decided not to vote yesterday -- this was for reasons I've already specifed, as well as several new ones:
1) I was getting really sick of the way Bloomberg was throwing money at this election. There was something imperious about it. Who could hope to compete if Bloomberg could just drown his opposition in his own outsized fortune?
2) During the debate with Bill Thompson, Bloomberg said that he'd support a Giuliani run for governor. While this was certainly just an ass-covering gesture, this was something that rankled deeply.
3) Bill Thompson hadn't earned my vote. Thompson is from a political family who's been groomed for this office forever. But lord only knows if he can run a city. No matter what else you have to say about Bloomberg, he proved he can at least do the job.
4) Bloomberg was going to win big, anyway.
Well, it turns out Reason # 4 was way off. A landslide turned into a squeaker. And when the outcome looked in doubt I seriously started to worry and began feeling that my reasons for not supporting Bloomberg were fairly petty.
But I think it turned out very well, in the end. (Although I probably would have never forgiven myself for not voting if Thompson had won.) Bloomberg was knocked (ever so gently) off his perch. Voters sent a message that maybe you can buy an election -- but we're not happy about it. (If Thompson had better political skills, he might really have won.) But we still have Bloomberg running things.
All in all, that was the best outcome I could have hoped for.
