Because Nothing Solidifies Support Around A Cause Like An Hour-Long Ad-Libbed Speech

. . . filled with tautologies and repeated in several languages for phantom speakers:

The nearly hour-long speech, at Cooper Union in the East Village, was part valedictory, part pep rally and part manifesto as he sought to re-energize supporters after the up-and-down start of his mayoralty.

He made no new policy proposals, offered no regrets, and acknowledged no missteps, referring only to “resistance” from unnamed “powerful interests.”

And he provided few details of his plans for the next phase of his mayoralty.

Instead, de Blasio used the 100-day milepost to play up his accomplishments and defend his goal of tackling income inequality and his brand of expansive and “grass-roots, people-powered government.”

“Politics of the sort that we believe in doesn’t measure success by poll numbers, but by action,” de Blasio said.

“Restoring a progressive New York, that is our vision and it’s what’s driven the steps we take, and it’s what drives the steps we will take ahead, together.”

De Blasio used the word “progressive” nearly two dozen times in his speech, which appeared to be ad-libbed. Aides said he worked from an outline but not a prepared text. He repeated one particularly long passage in Spanish.

In other words, they scheduled a speech and the mayor said stuff:

In the speech Thursday afternoon, Mr. de Blasio pledged not to focus on surveys or skeptics, insisting that he remained an outsider in city government even as he occupied its most powerful perch.

“Some people weren’t quite sure what to make of our progressive agenda to reduce inequality and restore opportunity, but now they’re starting to see,” he said in the speech. “Because politics of the sort that we believe in doesn’t measure success by poll numbers, but by action.”

For supporters of Mr. de Blasio, the event was a way for the mayor to remind the public of the grand ambitions for social change that he has brought to City Hall.

Tardiness In The Defense Of Equality Is No Vice

All that work recalibrating his image and he still manages to come off sounding like a dick:

And the famously tardy mayor, who arrived 35 minutes late to a midafternoon interview on Wednesday with The New York Times, declared that punctuality was sorely overrated.

“George W. Bush was punctual,” Mayor de Blasio said, reclining in an upholstered chair in his corner office at City Hall. “Unfortunately, he left the nation in worse shape than how he found it.”

In a wide-ranging conversation, punctuated by a trip to a nearby pizza parlor to silence the mayoral stomach, Mr. de Blasio portrayed his administration as having kept its pledge to combat inequality, an image he plans to emphasize in a speech at the Cooper Union on Thursday, his 100th day in office.

[. . .]

And as for tardiness? The mayor is known for arriving anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes late to public events, often stranding reporters, supporters and other elected officials.

“I don’t think punctuality should be treated as a false idol; I think it’s the ideal state of affairs,” he said, as a young scheduler lurked nearby. “But the most important thing is to get it right.”

At that, Mr. de Blasio rose from his seat. “There you have it,” the mayor said, signaling that he had other business to attend to.

Best Seen And Not Heard

The mayor’s approval rating inches up slightly in a third poll as the administration discovers that almost half of of voters will approve of your job, provided you stay out of the spotlight:

But the survey, released Monday, underscores the gap between the soaring expectations Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, set coming into office and the day-to-day ability of a municipal official to combat the forces of social inequality, which the mayor has declared as the overarching aim of his administration.

Fully half of respondents said they disapproved of Mr. de Blasio’s efforts to address income inequality, and 52 percent said they were dissatisfied with his work on making it easier for New Yorkers to find affordable housing, another major priority for his mayoralty.

It Only Took Three Months For This Mayor To Make Art Progressive

But it finally happened, and there’s clearly nothing this progressive movement can’t do:

“Where art and culture figure into this progressive moment is a question that lots of people are asking,” said Jimmy Van Bramer, the City Council’s majority leader, who represents Queens and encouraged Mr. Finkelpearl’s appointment. “I think Tom is the perfect person for this because he will help us all answer that question.”

On The Plus Side, Polls Show The New Mayor Earns High Marks For Pitching Columnists And Spinning The Governor’s Slapdowns

Sure, perhaps the mayor’s stunning pre-K victory was scripted all along, Michael Powell’s column notwithstanding:

Mayoral aides emailed helpfully this week to inquire if I planned to write on the size, the scope and the sheer, unprecedented progressiveness of the mayor’s victory.

When I suggested I might pass, they helpfully suggested I should really reconsider.

O.K. It is a splendid advance, and the mayor deserves credit for his doggedness, not to mention his ability to never lose his grin even as our governor offered a 43-part seminar in intricate ways to humiliate a new mayor. If Mr. de Blasio’s staff can govern as thoroughly, with no illusions about the spectrum of prekindergarten offerings, which range from excellent to custodial, this could come as a boon to tens of thousands of families.

City Hall, however, might consider tempering the stream of triumphal emails, which now seem to arrive in reporter inboxes at a rate of two an hour, proclaiming a record number of teachers applying for jobs, record classrooms found and so on.