Middle class treats Bloomberg like an alien

From Politicker NY:

At the moment, New Yorkers are watching a new campaign ad for Mr. Bloomberg currently in heavy rotation on seemingly every television channel, depicting a mayor who works for the “benefit of middle-class families” just like the one he comes from.

“The middle-class issue is clearly his greatest vulnerability,” said Jonathan Bowles, the director of the Center for an Urban Future and the co-author of the February study “Reviving the Middle Class Dream in NYC.” “You can grasp that just by looking at his campaign materials. He has become the middle-class candidate, which is kind of funny because he certainly hasn’t been the mayor of the middle class.”

City Councilman Jimmy Oddo, marching a few feet behind the mayor, with a wooden baseball bat resting on his shoulder, said, “There was a lot of antipathy on Staten Island to his administration after the property tax votes. But look at him, when he comes here, he’s treated like a conquering hero.”

Actually, they treat him like an alien. But they have determined that he is an alien they must live with. At times, Mr. Bloomberg marched alone, and he looked absolutely flummoxed when Mr. Oddo pinched his stomach, approving of his weight loss.