Wolf Tickets

The just released Marist Poll is quite fascinating. As Daily Politics points out: "Today's Marist poll finds the race between Comptroller Bill Thompson and Mayor Bloomberg has tightened somewhat, with the mayor slipping under the 50 percent mark to lead his likely Democratic opponent 48-35 compared to 51-35 in May...Fifty-one percent of voters polled think it's time to oust Bloomberg from office and give someone else a chance. That's up from 48 percent in May."

51%! think it's time for a change-even after the, it's gotta be up to at least $25 million, obscene level of spending on behalf of the mayor's race against himself. What a colossal waste of money-or, maybe not. After all, if Bloomberg wasn't spending the money, where would he be today?

And Thompson, for his part, should be buoyed by the fact that he's only 13 point down-and in spite of being outspent by, say, around $25 million. Clearly, in spite of what the lead vocalist from the Spinners says, this is much closer than it should be.

As The Politicker reports: "The competitiveness of a race is, to some degree, a subjective notion, one which operatives on both sides try to manipulate. Case in point: Bloomberg's spokesman Howard Wolfson and today's Marist poll. Here's Wolfson on the poll results: “We continue to be pleased with a double-digit lead over both of our opponents and the fact that a large majority of New Yorkers approve of the mayor's leadership."We look forward to watching this competitive Democratic primary with interest."

And Azi responds, unwilling to be spun: "That "competitive primary" between Thompson and Avella is not so close. In a head-to-head match-up, Thompson leads Avella 47 to 18. Which is considerably less close than the head-to-head match-up between Bloomberg and Thompson: Bloomberg leads 48 to 35."

The question remaining here, is can Thompson capitalize on what is clearly a large cohort of voters who are simply tired of Bloomberg-even among those who think he's been okay? And will the saturation media bombing validate the economic law of diminishing returns? Something that is well described in the following definition: "The tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved."

All is food for thought-and why Howard continues to spew out expensive woof tickets. Baffle them with BS; and deflect attention from the fact that, like the love engine of the Master of the House in Les Miz; "there's not much there." All the spending and all of the taxing hasn't made Mike Bloomberg an incumbent that is deserving of re-election-let alone the overturning of the will of the people expressed in two referenda.