Mayor Bloomberg To Us, "Papa Smurf" To Others

In this week's issue of the New Yorker, reporter Ben McGrath looks at Mayor Bloomberg—headline, "THE UNTOUCHABLE," subhead, "Can a good mayor amass too much power?" While the article offers an image of Bloomberg with a crown hovering over his head, the caption says this, "Ambitious younger mayors around the country call him Papa Smurf." Indeed, further into the piece, McGrath writes, "[Newark mayor Cory] Booker and other ambitious younger mayors around the country, like Adrian Fenty, in Washington, D.C., call him Papa Smurf."

The article goes into his rise to wealth, mayoral record and initiatives, re-election campaign positioning, overturning term limits, calling reporter Azi Paybarah a "disgrace," and more. The Post points out how Bloomberg compares himself to Robert Moses, the powerful city parks commissioner, "I think if you look we've done more in the last seven years than -- I don't know if it's fair to say more than Moses did -- but I hope history will show the things we did made a lot more sense... You know, Moses did some things that turned out not to be great: cutting us off from the waterfront, putting roads all along the water, as well as one Democratic consultant's thought, "He's probably been a fine mayor, but he seems a lot better because all the usual agitators -- groups that exist to drive a mayor crazy -- have in one way or another been bought off... It's amazing the climate you can have when nobody is criticizing you."

Which brings us back to the Papa Smurf analogy: According to Wikipedia, "Papa Smurf...serves as the Smurfs' leader and as a paternal figure of which the Smurfs usually go to when they require counsel and he is always concerned about the Smurf's wellbeing and harmony... n the original comic books by Peyo, Papa Smurf had a much more forceful personality, and had a short-temper (often seen getting angry with his smurfs when they did something wrong or were not obeying his orders)." Also: "When real chaos rises among them, Papa Smurf takes very drastic measures, often using magic"!!

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By Jen Chung in News on August 17, 2009 10:52 AM

Comments [rss]

felixthecat2

Bloomberg's crime and education statistics are magical since there is no concrete supporting documents. Supposedly, Bloomberg doesn't like to keep a paper trail.

Dead Himmler

What the hell Felix now people are starting to ask questions from the MTA. You idiot!!!

felixthecat2

Crock Booker made a mess out of Newark, of course Bloomberg is his hero. Bloomberg and all his rich buddies made MILLIONS off the taxpayers with all the no-bidding contracts. Bloomberg's brother-in-law made 5,000 dollars for each tv place in the Cabs and receives a % for ever credit card swipe. Bloomberg robs us blind but people still worship him. Dumb people.

babyhitler

In Smurf society, all are equal with the exception of Papa Smurf. Like any traditional totalitarian society, the Smurf Village is ruled by a dictator, in this case Papa Smurf. Papa Smurf is a true autocratic and authoritarian ruler who does not take into consideration input from any other Smurfs. He delegates authority, tasks, and rations out the smurf berries to how he sees fit. He is the only one who can create a female smurf, the only one who knows when baby smurfs are formed, the only one who knows how to use powerful magic. He keeps watch with his magical cauldron and even though he's the most powerful magician in smurfland he needs the threat of gargamel to keep the smurfs in line with mental and emotional fear. Gargamel is a incompetent dumbass who's been to the smurf village a million times but can never re-find the location when he really wants to. Therefore, we can conclude that gargamel is not a viable threat and is just being used as jingoistic propaganda by papa smurf to keep the smurfs submissive to only him. This has allowed papa smurf to rule for millenia with no term limits. Hmmm... sounds about right.

sidenote

Dude, it's just a cartoon. Deep breaths.

what_a_dick

dick smurf, that is

what_a_dick

dick

Mordicai

Are you saying Bloomberg is going to cast a spell on us?

Anyhow, shutting up critics & agitators "in one way or another" is a pretty legit strategy to me.