The Times has a good article detailing how Mike Bloomberg's imperiousness with the New York Legislature helped doom his congestion pricing plan. In New York City, the city council has limited power and, according to the Times, a history of deferring to the mayor. The Legislature isn't similarly deferential, and Bloomberg's relationship with them is bad enough that some went on record saying things like “All politics is relationships, and if he hasn’t built the relationships over time he can’t suddenly create those relationships with 48 hours to go in the process. It just shows that six and a half years into his term, the mayor just does not know how to approach the Legislature.”Which should be enough to end the Bloomberg-for-President bubble once and for all. Recall that the whole of Bloomberg's mystique is that he "gets things done" by floating far above the tawdry strictures of partisan politics. Not so. He gets them done by not having a legislative body to deal with. When he does have to deal with such a body, he fails. Sadly, as President, his lack of party affiliation wouldn't trigger some Broder Amendment to the US Constitution that exempted Bloomberg from dealing with Congress. Rather, the effect would likely be quite the opposite.Bloomberg's fewrelationships in the New York Legislature is probably a consequence of his relatively weak party ties. When you're part of an existing political institution, there are easy social networks to tap into, and you've come up through a structure that helped you get to know key players. When you parachute in from another world, you don't have those preexisting points of entry, and if you further reject a party affiliation, it's really unclear who your allies are in Congress, or how you identify them. But, at the very least, Bloomberg has long been a player in the New York world In DC, he's basically unknown. So he'd come in with even less connection to congressional power centers. In other words, his election would be a recipe for gridlock and confusion, not smoothly functioning efficiency.(Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Carbon NYC.) ENOUGH WITH BLOOMBERG.
The Times has a good article detailing how Mike Bloomberg's imperiousness with the New York Legislature helped doom his congestion pricing plan. In New York City, the city council has limited power and, according to the Times, a history of deferring to the mayor. The Legislature isn't similarly deferential, and Bloomberg's relationship with them is bad enough that some went on record saying things like “All politics is relationships, and if he hasn’t built the relationships over time he can’t suddenly create those relationships with 48 hours to go in the process. It just shows that six and a half years into his term, the mayor just does not know how to approach the Legislature.”Which should be enough to end the Bloomberg-for-President bubble once and for all. Recall that the whole of Bloomberg's mystique is that he "gets things done" by floating far above the tawdry strictures of partisan politics. Not so. He gets them done by not having a legislative body to deal with. When he does have to deal with such a body, he fails. Sadly, as President, his lack of party affiliation wouldn't trigger some Broder Amendment to the US Constitution that exempted Bloomberg from dealing with Congress. Rather, the effect would likely be quite the opposite.Bloomberg's fewrelationships in the New York Legislature is probably a consequence of his relatively weak party ties. When you're part of an existing political institution, there are easy social networks to tap into, and you've come up through a structure that helped you get to know key players. When you parachute in from another world, you don't have those preexisting points of entry, and if you further reject a party affiliation, it's really unclear who your allies are in Congress, or how you identify them. But, at the very least, Bloomberg has long been a player in the New York world In DC, he's basically unknown. So he'd come in with even less connection to congressional power centers. In other words, his election would be a recipe for gridlock and confusion, not smoothly functioning efficiency.(Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Carbon NYC.) 
