Bashing Bill de Blasio in the media has become a virtual cottage industry this year. Derisive headlines flash with every misstep and dismal poll result.
But with the end of the line in sight for the mayor’s presidential ambitions, the perpetual schadenfreude can only last so much longer. History may record that the phenomenon peaked with Matt Flegenheimer’s scorching profile of de Blasio in the
New York Times Magazine
this week. It became one of the season’s most buzzed-about articles.
“The New York mayor turned quixotic presidential candidate seems sick of his city,” its headline read, “and the feeling is mutual.”
Here are some of our favorite lines:
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“Aides to Bill de Blasio have long observed that he seems to grow happier with each mile of distance from the city he leads”
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“A sprig of white chest hair curled skyward beneath de Blasio’s open collar as he patrolled a nearly empty library in Columbia, S.C., looking like a brand ambassador for divorced dads trying to get back out there.”
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“Much of the media, with whom de Blasio has feuded endlessly since being elected mayor, portrayed him as almost performatively hapless, an impression his campaign did little to discourage.”
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“As he spoke, he twisted his back, extended and retracted his legs and stretched his arms behind his head, as if the interview were consuming valuable gym time.”
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“‘You just got the very visceral sense that he just didn’t want to talk to you,’ Laura Nahmias, a member of the
Daily News’s
editorial board and former City Hall reporter for
Politico New York
told me. ‘I think it colored people’s reporting — because they’re people.’”
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“Charlie Rangel, the 89-year-old former 23-term congressman from Harlem, told me he had never encountered a politician as isolated as de Blasio, who managed his 1994 re-election. ‘I don’t know a goddamn person that’s his buddy — nobody,’ Rangel said. “And everybody, even Giuliani, I know who his buddies are.’”
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“Even admirers remain confounded by how little he seems to participate in the life of the city. A reporter asked what the highlight of his first term had been. He proclaimed himself stumped, before enthusing about getting to know Bernie Sanders.”
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“I think there’s a little bit of an affectation in the question of, you know, ‘is (the job) fun?’ ” he told me. “I’d never thought it was going to be in that sense.”
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Aides say de Blasio has taken much of his coverage personally. “You don’t understand,” he told a staff member once. “They hate me.”
