“But A Blemish On An Otherwise Stellar Record”

The Community Newspaper Group — the Murdoch-owned entity that not so long ago gobbled up like half of the borough-centered weeklies — publishes its Bloomberg endorsement on all of its associated websites (the gutting of the Brooklyn Paper makes me sad):

Granted, Mayor Bloomberg’s quest for a third term has not been the prettiest thing to watch. First, the billionaire mayor, a former Democrat, renounced his Republican Party affiliation during a flirtation with the presidency in 2008 as an independent.

Then, when faced with the obstacle of New York City’s two-term limit, he spent a considerable sum of money to overturn the inconvenient law.

For many voters, that disqualifies Bloomberg from further service.

But for us, it is but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.

You have to like that way of putting it — “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.” Let’s skip the lamely obvious parallels, but I want to try this on because it might be fun. So Clinton’s perjury was “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record,” as was Nixon’s obstruction of justice. In this way, Robert MacNamara’s technocratic plunge into Vietnam was also “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record,” and half of Hollywood apparently believes that Roman Polanski’s indiscretion with a child was similarly “but a blemish on an otherwise stellar record.” When you put things that way — “but a blemish”! — everything sounds OK. I like it.