As The Old Saying Goes, I’d Rather Be A Fulminating Moron On This Week Or Face The Nation Or Meet The Press Than Mayor Of New York

A goatee of the mind:

On a two-day tour of Nebraska and Iowa — more than 1,200 miles from the New York City Hall where he has presided for 15 months — Mr. de Blasio is seeking to transcend his relative obscurity and jump-start a countrywide movement to promote liberal policies like raising taxes on the rich.

Already, the mayor’s effort is drawing scrutiny. His refusal this week to endorse the presidential candidacy of Hillary Rodham Clinton, his former boss, spurred criticism from more centrist Democrats, who questioned whether the mayor had earned the credibility to drive an insurgency within his party.

Mr. de Blasio’s aides did not anticipate the fierceness of the backlash to his comments about Mrs. Clinton, according to several people familiar with their thinking, but the episode underscored the notion that he could be positioned as the standard-bearer for the American left.

That is an image the mayor is keen to cultivate. A profile in Rolling Stone magazine is in the works. A forum for presidential candidates is being planned. The mayor will travel to Milwaukee and Washington this spring, and his aides are eyeing a West Coast trip to confer with liberal leaders in California.

[. . .]

Friends and colleagues of Mr. de Blasio’s say that his idea for a liberal coalition — it has not yet been given a formal name — is fueled by genuine moral dismay at the rise of economic inequality and that he wants to take advantage of his bully pulpit while it lasts.

(Remember, only a public advocate would conceive of a mayoralty as a “bully pulpit.”)

Please Do Not Hesitate To Contact My Office If You Have Any Concerns, Including But Not Limited To Vacuous Gladhanding, Vapid Grandstanding, Vacant Rhetoric And/Or The Status Of Any Long-Lost Goatee

“But no mayor in the better part of a century has won re-election in the face of deep hostility from the business community”:

More than a year after taking office, Mr. de Blasio is engaged in his first sustained courtship of the city’s most powerful private sector executives. The mayor, who ran for office railing against “moneyed interests,” is now making what corporate chieftains describe as a long-delayed, sometimes awkward, attempt to meet them on their home turf.

He has wooed them in private phone calls and unannounced meetings at City Hall, and has staged several striking events: On a visit last month to Morgan Stanley, for example, he posed for selfies with employees and joked that moving into Gracie Mansion was like living in a museum. [. . .]

[. . .]

In an early appearance before the Partnership for New York City, a powerful business group, last May, Mr. de Blasio startled those on hand by referring to financial services as a “legacy industry,” a relatively static sector inherited from an earlier time. After the mayor left the room, several financiers voiced umbrage at the remark, according to attendees who asked for anonymity to discuss what they said was a tense private meeting.

But Mr. de Blasio has continued to appear at events hosted by the partnership, insistently asking executives affiliated with the group to contact his office with any concerns. [. . .]

The Envoy Arrives In Des Moines To Elucidate The Populace About Issues Of Inequality

The Mayor’s own private Bermuda:

And Mr. de Blasio’s comments come as he is seeking a louder voice in national Democratic politics. The mayor is flying to the early nominating state of Iowa this week, part of a two-day Midwest tour designed to raise awareness about income inequality, his signature issue.

His appearance on “Meet the Press” was booked days before it became clear Mrs. Clinton would enter the race on Sunday. But the timing of the comments, amid lingering questions on whether Mrs. Clinton can capture the allegiance of her party’s left wing, drew immediate interest.

“This is her announcement day,” said Hilary Rosen, a Democratic political strategist and longtime supporter of Mrs. Clinton. “It’s one thing to say we’re looking forward to listening to her policies, to examining it more and the like. It’s another thing to kind of stomp on it. I just thought that his tone seemed to stomp on it.”

[. . .]

Representatives for Mr. de Blasio and Mrs. Clinton declined to comment on Sunday. Privately, the mayor’s advisers have rejected the notion that Mr. de Blasio’s national effort is about raising his profile, describing it instead as a grass-roots movement to promote the policy ideas, like higher wages and affordable housing, that he believes can narrow the nation’s wealth gap.

And The Best Part Is The City Gets Her For A Song

Still unclear why she needs a staff, though:

Inside City Hall in October, some three dozen commissioners and administration officials gathered to discuss children’s issues, rattling off statistics on cognitive development in toddlers.

The group, called the “children’s cabinet” by Mayor Bill de Blasio, was formed in April, but had, on this day, attracted a first-time visitor: his wife, Chirlane McCray.

And Ms. McCray had a request: Would anyone mind, she asked, if she sang a song?

Hearing no objections, New York City’s first lady began a lullaby she had used with her own family, turning to serenade a deputy mayor who had discussed the importance of singing to children.

The meeting, according to several people there, continued after a round of applause. But administration aides, taken with Ms. McCray’s impromptu performance, resolved to grow her audience: A recording of her lullaby will soon be featured in a promotion about early childhood development.

Which Is Why You Never, Ever Trust A Politician Who Likes To Be “Creative”

But before that, never, ever, ever, ever buy any bullshit from politicians who all of the sudden find religion:

Many of Mr. de Blasio’s religious initiatives began as campaign promises, made during his courtship of evangelicals, Muslims, Orthodox Jews and other religious groups that now make up a substantial portion of the city. They are groups that often felt frustrated by the administration of Michael R. Bloomberg, a political independent who was avowedly secular and insisted on a strict church-state divide.

“The progressive political community, of which de Blasio considers himself a part, tends to have a more secularist view of the world, and you would not describe us as a progressive community,” said Rabbi David Zwiebel, executive director of Agudath Israel of America, an umbrella organization for ultra-Orthodox Jews. “We will holler about same-sex marriage and all the rest.”

“But when you get down to the level of actual governance,” Rabbi Zwiebel added, “down to efforts to try to respect the community’s sensitivities and religious traditions, my own view is that we have a real friend in City Hall.”

[. . .]

“I understand the role of civil libertarians,” the mayor said. But he added, “When it comes to the notion of public policy and what we are trying to achieve through public policy, I am going to be creative, in a very appropriate way, to get that done.”