Though we long ago buried our relationship with the dilapidated New York Press, apparently someone at the Times is still dutifully reading the alt-weekly (perhaps hoping for a miracle). Thus, in Patrick Healy's November 6th article, New York Press gets a mention for endorsing Democratic punching bag Ferrer — but not to the pleasure of Press editors. In their latest issue, the Press writes:
There's an interesting story on the front page of the Times metro section today about voter research conducted by the Bloomberg campaign. Typically, you see, voter lists like these are constructed from publicly available information — magazine subscriptions, voting registrations, neighborhood, race, ethnicity — and then different messages are targeted at different subsets. But because Bloomie had so much money to throw around, his pollsters could afford to call hundreds of thousands of voters to find out about voters' interests and preferences.
After-election analyses are fun, when political reporters parse returns and exit polls and work to determine who voted for whom and why. But the real challenge in that effort isn't the data crunching, it's figuring out the socially acceptable ways to express what that crunched data says.
Try this on for size: We think yesterday was sort of a bad day for Bloomberg. Because here's the thing. The dude was up by more than 30 points in all final pre-election opinion polls. Thirty-eight, even, according to Quinnipiac. And yet he only won by a 20-point margin.
Oh, election morning. That heady mix of anticipation and dread. The uplifting possibility that the good guys might, finally, win, and the pit-of-the-stomach terror that the bad guys will win again and become even smugger. All that armchair Russerting — "It's a beautiful day — easier for people to turn out!" "A packed West Village polling place shows the Dems are excited!" "The college kids seem to care, and that can only be good for us!" "A friend's ex-boyfriend whose roommate works for the campaign is hearing good numbers!" All that waiting for Wolf Blitzer to yell the results at us as they come in. It's seat-of-our-pants drama, is what it is.
See, the problem is, it's just that the politicians follow the polls. And so it's not so much that the politicians are assholes, it's that our fellow citizens are. We've long known this, of course, but we were reminded by an article in this morning's Post:
We've never voted for a Republican before in our life, and there's a decent chance we never will again. (When we were 12, we and a bunkmate made a giant "Duke '88" banner in arts and crafts class, which hung over our beds at camp.) Even so, not for a moment have we ever considered voting for Fernando Ferrer for mayor. Until, perhaps, now:
• Yes, we are painfully aware that bits and pieces of Kevin Federline's ear-slicing new album have infected the internet. We're also aware that he raps with a sibilant "s" sound, but we think that just adds to the je ne sais quoi of his musical abortion. [Stereogum]
• You may have missed your chance to sleep with Elvis, but there's still a huge window on humping the dude who slept with a girl who slept with a '70s child actor who slept with Ann-Margret who slept with Elvis. [Craigslist]
• Proving that it is the ultimate in frat-boy evil, email newsletter Thrillist gives all lazy men the key to maintaining their relationships while secretly being a dick. [Thrillist]
• As if a rapist fireman-impersonator weren't bad enough, NYC now has a fake David Cross slumming the streets in search of tail! [The Apiary]
• Local political nutcase Chris X. Brodeur receives much-needed downtime in jail. [Gothamist]
• Hart+Larsson is hiring Kate Moss, and only Kate Moss. [Hart+Larsson via AdRants]
• Google continues to take over the world — but we'll be damned if we let those boy geniuses near our TiVo. [BigShinyThing]
With Election Day rapidly approaching, it's time you started thinking seriously about which mayoral candidate deserves your vote. After all, you have to elect someone as your preference to lose to Bloomberg.
"After disagreement and debate," as the Times puts it, the MTA voted yesterday to allow $1 rides on certain days between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
We've been peacefully sleeping through this election season (should the suspense of who might lose to Bloomberg be killing us?), but the Rent Is Too Damn High Party tackles the compelling issues while providing the entertainment we've been so desperately craving. According to the the party's website, New York's problem is simple:
• Cocaine Kate is now Sober Kate, as the supermodel has been released from her paparazzi-hiding stint in rehab. Oh, Katie, New York is waiting for you with open arms. Come on home, sugarpie! [CNN]
• Today show weatherman Al Roker has been Googling himself on the matter of his fantastic on-air fall during Hurricane Wilma and is a tad defensive. Or maybe he's just misses eating entire sandwiches and has no choice but to blog his rage. [Al Roker]
• Making sure your Halloween costume is as gay as possible. [Manhattan Offender]
• The MTA wants to thank you, poor commuter, in some "small, insignificant way." [AP/NYDN]
• Imagine the fear of answering your phone to hear the voice of Harvey Weinstein telling you to vote for Bloomberg. That's exactly why we hate land lines. [Politicker]
• But what Lindsay Lohan really wants to do is direct. [MTV]
More good news for Bloomberg! (As if he needed it.) Nearly four years into his anti-cigarette jihad, the state has announced that New York's smoking rate has hit a record low. Reports the Post:
A headline from today's Observer:
The temperature is getting briskly cool, the leaves are changing colors, and in the air there's a feeling of — what's that? ah, yes — MTA labor-negotiation time! As coverage in the three New York papers this weekend made clear, it's that magical time of year when the Transport Workers Union decides that the best way to get the city to accede to its contract demands is to terrify us into thinking they'll go on strike and we'll all be very, very late for work.
An item on NYTimes.com this morning:
Once upon a time, things were simpler. Idealistic. An artistic man in artistic glases designed a master plan for Ground Zero, and everyone loved it.
Those new subway rules — you know, the ones adding fines for open containers, and forbidding you to spread out over more than one seat, and banning moving between cars — were, after being tabled TK ago*, passed by the MTA board yesterday. So that means, among other things, no morning java on the train.
You thought the plan to turn the Farley Post Office on Eighth Avenue into a new Penn Station had a powerful backer in Pat Moynihan. After he died, you thought it had an even more powerful backer in the politically savvy Moynihan family's invoking of his memory. But, reports the Sun the plan just picked up its most powerful backer yet.
