Barack Obama Tells Mike Bloomberg To Give Up On Gun Control

Mediaite.com:

After donating $2.5 million to the Democratic Senate Majority PAC, America’s favorite Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent, former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg, is signaling that his great crusade against guns is running out of steam. The need for new gun laws that was so pressing in 2013, and that Bloomberg and his organization, Mayors Against Illegal Handguns, lobbied so hard for, is apparently no longer so acute. 

When he was not belittling or cajoling gun control’s foes, Bloomberg spent the better part of 2013 agitating for stricter gun laws. As recently as December 14, the first anniversary of the massacre in Newtown, both Bloomberg’s group and President Barack Obama’s political arm, Organizing for Action, sent out messages to their supporters insisting that the need for stricter gun laws is no less critical today than it was one year ago. 

But their actions speak differently. The president and Democrats were happy to support Bloomberg’s opposition toward the proliferation of firearms so long as it was not principled. However, when Bloomberg’s group released an ad targeting Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) over his opposition to new gun ownership restrictions, it became clear that Bloomberg was actually serious about this public policy initiative. So serious, in fact, that he would go as far as to challenge an embattled Democratic incumbent whose loss in November could help hand control of the U.S. Senate over to Republicans. This could not stand. 

“There had been information that I had as recently as two weeks ago that he was resisting pressure from both [Sens. Charles] Schumer (D-NY) and [Harry] Reid (D-NV) to defend Mark Pryor, or not to attack Mark Pryor, on the gun issue,” MSNBC host Andrea Mitchell said of Bloomberg’s latest move on Tuesday. 

Mitchell observed that Bloomberg had previously appeared to be “single issue focused on guns at the risk of jeopardizing Senate for Democrats.” TIME Magazine reporter Mark Halperin confirmed that Bloomberg not only resisted pressure from the two highest ranking Democrats in the Senate, but also former President Bill Clinton, who asked Bloomberg to temper his enthusiasm for attacking politicians who oppose stricter gun laws if those politicians happen to be Democrats. 

Halperin added that, while there are many Democrats in the Senate up for reelection this year, they all enjoy some advantages; including strong fundraising, weak Republican challengers, and incumbency itself. These incumbents, he insisted, may hang on in November in spite of six-year midterm headwinds, but attacking these Senate Democrats from the left could imperil them by reducing the base’s enthusiasm. 

CNN reports that the Democratic Super PAC to which Bloomberg donated millions has already gone up with ads in support of some of this election cycle’s most embattled Senate Democrats, including Pryor, Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Mark Begich (D-AK). Each voted “no” on a resolution that would have banned high-capacity magazines in April of last year. Thus, Bloomberg has financially rooted himself on both sides of the guns issue. 

RELATED:  Democrats backing away from gun control after a banner year for gun sales

Despite Best Efforts Of Far-Left Press, No "First Gay Mayor" Of New York City

For the far-Left, New York press endorsing Christine Quinn for Democrat candidate to be mayor wasn't about her many scandals or her lying to the city's voters while steamrolling the democratic process to enable Mayor Michael Bloomberg's third term, it was about trying to make "history" and elect the "first lesbian mayor" of NYC. Too bad their farce blew up in their face:

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who was once considered the heir to Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s throne, ended her campaign for mayor on Tuesday night, coming in a distant third place in the polls.

“I want to congratulate my opponents Bill Thompson and Bill de Blasio on a hard-earned victory” an emotional Ms. Quinn told enthusiastic supports gathered at the swanky Dream Hotel in Chelsea, where the only decoration was a single “Christine Quinn for New York” banner hung above a simple stage.

“This was a hard-fought race, we took a lot of knocks, we were up against a lot off odds, but I am proud of the race we all ran,” she said. “There’s a young girl out there who was inspired by the thought of New York’s first woman mayor and said to herself, ‘You know what? I can do that.’”

The mood in the room was somber throughout the night as exit polls made clear that Ms. Quinn had been eclipsed by Bill de Blasio, the public advocate, whose campaign had soared from behind in the final weeks, promising a break from the Bloomberg years.

The outcome was a stunning blow for Ms. Quinn, who spent the first months of the race as the undisputed front-runner, nearly approaching the crucial 40 percent that she would have needed to win without a runoff.

But Ms. Quinn’s team and surrogates acknowledged Tuesday that they had miscalculated the growing frustrations with the current administration and desire to move in a new direction–a sentiment Mr. de Blasio seized early on. As the primary electorate skewed left, Ms. Quinn dug in her heels on positions like supporting Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and seemed reluctant to tout the historic status of her candidacy as the potential first female and openly gay mayor.

RELATED: De Blasio surge thanks to breakout ad with teenage son

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg Correctly Claims New York Times Fakes Interest In Plight Of African Americans

I'd agree and go so far to say that 99% of so-called "liberals" have zero interest in the real plight of Blacks in this country. Now getting their votes? Well, that's a whole different matter entirely:

On Tuesday, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg fired back at the New York Times for accusing his administration of embracing a racially discriminatory law enforcement policy with his own accusations of racism. After being accused of embracing a the controversial “stop-and-frisk” policy which critics have said unfairly targets minority youth, Bloomberg leveled his own accusations of racial discrimination back at the Times claiming they are feigning interest in the plight of African-Americans.


Bloomberg spoke Tuesday about a March editorial in the New York Times which accuses his administration of unfairly singling out black youth with the “stop-and-frisk program.”

“Last week Bronx resident Alphonza Bryant was shot and killed while standing with friends near his home. He was 17,” Bloomberg said in response. “Like most murder victims, he was a minority.”

“It does not appear that he was even the intended target of the shooters. He was just a victim of too many guns on our streets,” the mayor continued. “But after his murder there was no outrage from the Center for Constitutional Rights or the NYCLU.”

“There was not even a mention of his murder in our paper of record, the New York Times,” Bloomberg noted pointedly. “’All the news that’s fit to print’ did not include the murder of 17-year-old Alphonza Bryant. 

Do you think that if a white, 17-year-old prep student from Manhattan had been murdered, the Times would have ignored it? Me neither.”

RELATED:  Mother of slain Bronx 17-year-old Alphonza Bryant says 'stop-and-frisks are terrorizing our kids' but some kids need it

Chick-fil-A And The Hypocritical Tolerance Enforcers

NationalReview.com:

To modify Lord Acton, power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, but aldermanic power corrupts all der more manically. Proco “Joe” Moreno is alderman of the First Ward of Chicago, and last week, in a city with an Aurora-sized body count every weekend, his priority was to take the municipal tire-iron to the owners of a chain of fast-food restaurants. “Because of this man’s ignorance,” said Alderman Moreno, “I will now be denying Chick-fil-A’s permit to open a restaurant in the First Ward.”

“This man’s ignorance”? You mean, of the City of Chicago permit process? Zoning regulations? Health and safety ordinances? No, Alderman Moreno means “this man’s ignorance” of the approved position on same-sex marriage. “This man” is Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-A, and a few days earlier he had remarked that “we are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives” — which last part suggests he is as antipathetic to no-fault divorce and other heterosexual assaults on matrimony as he is to more recent novelties such as gay marriage. But no matter. Alderman Moreno does not allege that Chick-fil-A discriminates in its hiring practices or in its customer service. Nor does he argue that business owners should not be entitled to hold opinions: The Muppets, for example, have reacted to Mr. Cathy’s observations by announcing that they’re severing all ties with Chick-fil-A. Did you know that the Muppet Corporation has a position on gay marriage? Well, they do. But Miss Piggy and the Swedish Chef would be permitted to open a business in the First Ward of Chicago because their opinion on gay marriage happens to coincide with Alderman Moreno’s. It’s his ward, you just live in it. When it comes to lunch options, he’s the chicken supremo and don’t you forget it.

The city’s mayor, Rahm Emanuel, agrees with the alderman: Chick-fil-A does not represent “Chicago values” — which is true if by “Chicago values” you mean machine politics, AIDS-conspiracy-peddling pastors, and industrial-scale black youth homicide rates. But, before he was mayor, Rahm Emanuel was President Obama’s chief of staff. Until the president’s recent “evolution,” the Obama administration held the same position on gay marriage as Chick-fil-A. Would Alderman Moreno have denied Barack Obama the right to open a chicken restaurant in the First Ward? Did Rahm Emanuel quit the Obama administration on principle? Don’t be ridiculous. Mayor Emanuel is a former ballet dancer, and when it’s politically necessary he can twirl on a dime.

Meanwhile, fellow mayor Tom Menino announced that Chick-fil-A would not be opening in his burg anytime soon. “If they need licenses in the city, it will be very difficult,” said His Honor. If you’ve just wandered in in the middle of the column, this guy Menino isn’t the mayor of Soviet Novosibirsk or Kampong Cham under the Khmer Rouge, but of Boston, Massachusetts. Nevertheless, he shares the commissars’ view that in order to operate even a modest and politically inconsequential business it is necessary to demonstrate that one is in full ideological compliance with party orthodoxy. “There is no place for discrimination on Boston’s Freedom Trail,” Mayor Menino thundered in his letter to Mr. Cathy, “and no place for your company alongside it.” No, sir. On Boston’s Freedom Trail, you’re free to march in ideological lockstep with the city authorities — or else. Hard as it is to believe, there was a time when Massachusetts was a beacon of liberty: the shot heard round the world, and all that. Now it fires Bureau of Compliance permit-rejection letters round the world.

Mayor Menino subsequently backed down and claimed the severed rooster’s head left in Mr. Cathy’s bed was all just a misunderstanding. Yet, when it comes to fighting homophobia on Boston’s Freedom Trail, His Honor is highly selective. As the Boston Herald’s Michael Graham pointed out, Menino is happy to hand out municipal licenses to groups whose most prominent figures call for gays to be put to death. The mayor couldn’t have been more accommodating (including giving them $1.8 million of municipal land) of the new mosque of the Islamic Society of Boston, whose IRS returns listed as one of their seven trustees Yusuf al-Qaradawi.

RELATED: Bloomberg Says Mayors ‘Are Wrong’ to Ban Chick-fil-A

Politiks As Usual: In The News 7/23/12

Community Remembers The Victims Of The Colorado Movie Massacre

Christian Movie Critic: Massacre Is Simply 'Evil' At Work

Why Is Brian Ross Still Working for ABC News?

Obama Donor: Stimulus Was Like a Hooker in Prison

Statue of Famed Penn St. Coach Paterno Taken Down

Chick-Fil-A Publicly Acknowledges It’s Conservative, Media Upset

George Will and Jennifer Rubin Demolish Time's Joe Klein on Gun Control Laws

Murdoch Quits British Newspaper Boards

(Homosexual) Misperception Clouds The Truth

Bloomberg: Obama ‘Has Spent The Last Three Years Trying To Avoid The Issue’ Of Gun Control

Romney To Walk Into The Lion’s Den; Plans Trip, Speeches Abroad

Politics As Usual: In The News 6/4/12

George Zimmerman Surrenders, Is Booked Into Florida Jail

Nigeria Seeks Answers To Fatal Crash

The False Promises Of Modern Liberalism

What's This? Obama Longs For GOP Rival Like McCain

Pelosi Predicts Scalia, Alito, Thomas or Roberts Will Side With Administration on Obamacare

Lori Lolo Jones says No-No To Sex, ‘Infuriates’ Entertainment Media

Gulp: Bloomberg’s Stunning Nanny State Overreach

Remember When the National Media Despised Recall Elections? California in 2003

Faith Leaders: Obama Losing Religious Vote

Assad: Syria Massacre Carried Out By 'Monsters'

Grading On A Curve

Bush and Obama at the White House: Why the yukfest? (+video)

Liberal, "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters Are Hurting NYC Economy

Protesters Accused of Hurting NYC Economy: MyFoxNY.com

MyFoxny.com:

Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Friday accused the Wall Street demonstrators of trying to cripple New York City's economy.


"What they're trying to do is take the jobs away from people working in this city," the mayor declared in his harshest criticism of the three-week-old protest that has caught the attention of the nation.


"They're trying to take away the tax base we have because none of this is good for tourism."


Although he expressed sympathy for "some of their complaints," Bloomberg warned that addressing them has to be accomplished "without hurting people and making the problem worse."


"If the jobs they are trying to get rid of in this city -- the people that work in finance, which is a big part of our economy -- we're not going to have any money to pay our municipal employees or clean the blocks or anything else."


The mayor's comments came in response to a caller to his WOR Radio show who asked what the city intended to do about the protest headquarters in Zuccotti Park, which is near her apartment and where hundreds of people are camped out.


"What about my rights to use the park?" asked the caller, named Marsha.


"This is a little bit of greenery that we reclaimed after Sept. 11. It's not usable. There is a general sense of incivility down there. But worst of all are the drums and the shouting. I know they've agreed to stop the drumming. Last night they were drumming until 10:45. Someone did a little practice drumming this morning at 7:50."


"We couldn't agree more," replied the mayor.


"We are trying to deal with this in a way that doesn't make the problem grow and protects everybody's rights."


He hinted that the city is hoping the protest peters out on its own.


"I think we let some of this -- not play out, isn't quite the right word, but let them express themselves," said Bloomberg.


President Barack Obama on Thursday defended the protesters, saying they expressed "the frustrations that the American people feel. People are frustrated and the protesters are giving voice to a more broad-based frustration about how our financial system works."

Politiks As Usual: In The News 9/26/11

Obama To Blacks: 'Put On Your Marching Shoes'

Herman Cain Wins Florida Presidential Straw Poll, Rick Perry 2nd

Student Punished For Christian Faith

Earth To Gov. Perry: True "Heart" Means No Benefits To Illegals

Savage Oprah: Former Daytime Queen Hypes Work Of 'Potty-Mouthed' Gay Activist

Obama's Government-Loans-to-Nowhere Bill

Suskind: Same People Attacking Me For Writing About Obama Praised My Bush Books

Michael Bloomberg Touts Third Party Group, Blasts Buffett

Star Parker: GOP Presidential Debates Aren't Serious

Mika Brzezinski Faces Camera And Implores Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to Close Gun Show Loophole

Good job by Mika, despite what NewsBusters thinks.

RELATED:  Mayor Bloomberg's Undercover Gun Stings Get Results -- And Gripes In Tucson

Authorities Fear Cops Being Targeted After at Least 11 Officers Shot in 24 Hours

Maybe this will give the gun-happy, kooks on the Right a moment to pause and reflect on changing some of the loopholes that are giving criminals and the mentally-challenged possession of guns. Thank goodness, unlike our President, we here in New York City have a mayor who cares about these things:

Authorities are worried a recent wave of police officer shootings may not be a coincidence.


In just 24 hours, at least 11 cops were shot around the country.


The most recent incident at a fugitive's house in St. Petersburg, Fla., left two officers dead and a U.S. marshal wounded Monday. Hours earlier, an Oregon officer was critically wounded after being shot multiple times during a traffic stop.


Monday's violence followed a bloody Sunday that left an officer in Indianapolis critically wounded during a traffic stop shooting, four officers in Indianapolis wounded after a gunman opened fire in a precinct and two more officers in Washington wounded in a shootout in a Walmart parking lot.


"It's not a fluke," Richard Roberts, a spokesman for the International Union of Police Associations, told MSNBC.com. "There's a perception among officers in the field that there’s a war on cops going on."

Politiks As Usual: In The News 12/13/10

Estate Tax Emerges As Key Democratic Beef In Obama's Compromise

19 Unusual Gifts Nobody Wants

Ruling Elites Wage War On Morality

Yes, ObamaCare Still Worse Than You Thought

Gossip Blogs Claim Teens Are Getting Pregnant To Get On MTV Show

Obama's Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low With Liberals At 70 Percent

Haiti 'Perfect Environment' For Disease

What's Next For Liberals? Friendly Fascism

Michael Steele To Announce RNC Re-election Decision Monday Morning

Michael Bloomberg On Presidential Run: 'No Way, No How'

The Unmaking Of The President

Check's Finally In The Mail For Black Farmers

Raheel Raza On Why She Opposes Ground Zero Mosque

HotAir.com:

Via the Right Scoop, four minutes of “hate” from tonight’s O’Reilly Factor with the author of the op-ed that Ed blogged this morning. Why would she bother weighing in against the mosque when it’s bound to earn her scorn not only from many Muslims but from the media bien-pensants who’ve been congratulating themselves over their own supposed enlightenment for weeks? For the same reason, I suspect, that Zuhdi Jasser felt compelled to oppose the mosque in his op-ed back in May: Because she really does want better relations between Muslims and non-Muslims and has a crazy hunch that insisting upon building a cultural center 400 feet or so north of Ground Zero despite wide public opposition isn’t the shrewdest way to go about it. In other words, she’s doing repair work here — and doing a mighty fine job of it, as even O’R feels compelled to acknowledge.

I watched this live, really impressive interview.

MSNBC Host Contessa Brewer Hoped Times Square Bomber Would Be A Tea Partier

They want to find the "RACISM!" so bad, but everywhere they look they keep coming up empty.

RELATED: Liberals Accuse Tea Partiers Of Role In Failed Times Square Car Bomb Attack

Michael Bloomberg Ends Tax-Wasting, Union-Supported Teacher Rubber Rooms

AP.com:

The city and the teachers' union have worked out a deal to stop putting hundreds of teachers waiting for disciplinary hearings in "rubber rooms" and will close the centers this fall, two people familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Officially known as teacher-reassignment centers, the so-called rubber rooms are off-campus spaces where hundreds of teachers are paid their full salaries to do nothing while they await disciplinary hearings.

Two people familiar with the decision said Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration and the teachers' union were to announce the deal later Thursday. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made.

More than 600 teachers generally spend months or even years in the rubber rooms playing Scrabble, reading or surfing the Internet. The nickname refers to the padded cells of asylums, and teachers have said the name is fitting, since some of the inhabitants can become unstable.

The department has blamed union rules that make it difficult to fire teachers, but some teachers assigned to rubber rooms charge that they have been singled out because they blew the whistle on a principal who was fudging test scores.

Finally, Mayor Mike does something significant on his own, instead of just living off the progress made during the Giuliani Era.

NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg Slams Obama On Gun Control

NYPost.com:

President Obama is under the gun when it comes to Mayor Bloomberg and his crusade against illegal weapons.

Bloomberg, generally considered a White House ally, put Obama on notice after he fired off a letter to the White House this month where he reportedly accused the president of dragging his feet when it comes to gun control, according to a report today.

In the March 3 letter sent from Bloomberg's coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, the mayor points to a separate report the group sent the Obama administration last August, which laid out 40 recommendations to "improve enforcement of existing gun laws," according to The Huffington Post.

The letter was co-signed by Boston Mayor Tom Menino.

"We appreciate the ... consideration of the report, but this is an urgent matter: further delay will almost certainly result in the needless loss of innocent lives, including many children. Mr. President, the time has come for action," the mayors wrote, according to the letter obtained by The Huffington Post.

The White House did not immediately have a comment in regards to the letter.

One would think that a liberal ideologue like Barry would be on top of this matter, but Americans needed health care reform, not safety from crime.

Obama Pulls The Plug On KSM Trial For New York City

NYTimes.com:

The Obama administration on Friday gave up on its plan to try the Sept. 11 plotters in Lower Manhattan, bowing to almost unanimous pressure from New York officials and business leaders to move the terrorism trial elsewhere.

“I think I can acknowledge the obvious,” an administration official said. “We’re considering other options.”

The reversal on whether to try the alleged 9/11 terrorists blocks from the former World Trade Center site seemed to come suddenly this week, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abandoned his strong support for the plan and said the cost and disruption would be too great.

But behind the brave face that many New Yorkers had put on for weeks, resistance had been gathering steam.

After a dinner in New York on Dec. 14, Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, pulled aside David Axelrod, President Obama’s closest adviser, to convey an urgent plea: move the 9/11 trial out of Manhattan.

More recently, in a series of presentations to business leaders, local elected officials and community representatives of Chinatown, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly laid out his plan for securing the trial: blanketing a swath of Lower Manhattan with police checkpoints, vehicle searches, rooftop snipers and canine patrols.

“They were not received well,” said one city official.

And on Tuesday, in a meeting Mr. Bloomberg had with at least two dozen federal judges on the eighth floor of their Manhattan courthouse, one judge raised the question of security. The mayor, according to several people present, said he was sure the courthouse could be made safe, but that it would be costly and difficult.

Dumb, stupid idea to begin with. But that's what happens when you put the keys to the ignition in the hands of liberals.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg Opposes 9/11 Trials Being Held In NYC

NYTimes.com:

The dispute over a trial location, touched off when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York complained of costs and disruption, threatened to reopen the divisive question of how those accused of plotting the murder of more than 3,000 Americans should be brought to justice.

Republicans in the Senate and House said they would try to block financing for civilian criminal trials for the alleged terrorists, seeking to force the administration to place them on trial before a military commission in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, or on a military base elsewhere.

Opponents of civilian trials said they hoped new doubts about a New York trial and increased fears of terrorism since the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day would win more Democratic support for such measures.

The apparent collapse of what had seemed since November to be a settled decision to hold the trial in lower Manhattan was clear when New York’s senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, a Democrat, said on Thursday that he was encouraging the Obama administration “to find suitable alternatives.”

While Barry and his liberal minions praised this move, common sense and compassion, have shown us the depths of the Left's stupidity. Of course, Barry could overrule Eric Holder's idiot decision to hold the 9/11 trials right in the heart of New York City, but what does he care? Barry didn't campaign on stopping terror, but he's certainly had no problem showing how much he supports coddling terrorists, not to mention giving them the same rights as your average American. Now one the largest cities in the country, a city that overwhelmingly supported Barry in '08, a city still reeling from 9/11, doesn't know what to make of him now that he's spit in their face.

Dead NYC Times Square Gunman Used Stolen Gun Traced Back To Virginia

Gothamist.com:

The gun used in a brazen Times Square shootout was stolen from its owner in Virginia last month. The knock-off MAC-10 pistol was sold at Dale's Guns on Oct. 18 in Powhatan, Virginia before being reported stolen from a car 10 days later in Richmond, Virginia, according to the Daily News.

Cops said the original buyer was 25-year-old Richmond-native Jordan Kelsey-Stewart, 25, who has prior arrests for driving without a license and possession of a firearm with alcohol. Police are trying to determine whether or not she knew Raymond "Ready" Martinez before the rapper and street peddler acquired her gun, opened fire at police, and was gunned down after his weapon jammed because he was holding it incorrectly.

Gun store owner Dale Blankenship said Kelsey-Stewart had all the proper identification and passed a background check before purchasing the handgun. According to 1010WINS, Martinez — who did not have a license to own a gun — was "carrying a pocketful of business cards from Virginia gun dealers" when he was killed.

Mayor Bloomberg — who has long squabbled with Virginia gun dealers — says the shooting is an example of why the nation needs stricter gun laws. "There's just too many guns in the street," said Bloomberg, who claims out-of-state gun sellers allow criminals to obtain firearms through "straw purchasing," in which one customer fills out the forms and passes the background check before giving the gun to a second person. He added: "This is one of the great public health threats. And our police officers are clearly in danger." According to city officials, about 85 percent of illegal guns in the city come from five states, including Virginia.

I'm not making any excuses for Raymond Martinez, an idiot who scammed people for a living and then foolishly (and thank goodness not tragically) shot at police officers in a crowded section of New York City, endangering people's lives. But let Martinez's death be yet another example of why this country needs tougher gun laws. This isn't about the millions of legitimate gun owners out there, it's about lax gun purchase laws as well as tougher prosecution against sellers of guns who engage in "straw purchasing". Gun dealers suspected of illegally selling firearms that wind up involved in murders need to be put out of business and do serious time behind bars.

Mike Bloomberg Wins 3rd Term As Mayor

Reuters.com:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who engineered a change in the city's term-limits law so he could run again and set a campaign financing record, narrowly won a third term on Tuesday, local media declared.

Bloomberg, who ran as an independent, defeated City Comptroller Bill Thompson, a Democrat, according to The New York Times, the Daily News and NY1 television.

With 99 percent of the votes counted, Bloomberg was ahead 51 to 46 percent.

His margin was far smaller than expected, given polls that showed him as recently as Monday with a double-digit lead and expectations of a large, lopsided victory.

Bloomberg spent more of his own money in pursuit of public office than any other individual in U.S. history, and he vastly outspent his challenger, laying out $13 for every $1 spent by Thompson.

Here in NYC everyone pretty much knew Bloomberg was going to win. But yeah, considering that Bill Thompson came into this election as a virtual unknown, didn't offer much of a platform (besides relentlessly pointing out how Mayor Mike "bullied" his way to revising the city's term-limits law) and had hardly any backing from any prominent Dems (including the White House and Bill Clinton who made overtures that he'd come out and back Thompson, but ended up flaking out), Thompson does deserves kudos for making Bloomberg sweat a little bit.

Rudy Giuliani Throws Support Behind Michael Bloomberg For NYC Mayor

NYDailyNews.com:

Former mayor Rudy Giuliani warned Sunday that crime rates could soar to 1990s levels and the city could again be a victim of terrorism if Mayor Bloomberg doesn't win reelection.

Giuliani's dire predictions came during a tag-team campaign swing - the first time Bloomberg has tapped the one-time GOP star for help on the stump this election season.

"This city could very easily be taken back in a very different direction," Giuliani told a crowd of ultra-Orthodox Jews at a breakfast sponsored by Brooklyn's Borough Park Jewish Community Council. "It could very easily be taken back to the way it was with the wrong political leadership. Politics is important. It's important to our safety. It's important to our security."

It's all about strategy folks. Giuliani wants that NY Governor's post next year. A Bloomberg win (which is highly likely considering the size of Mayor Mike's bank) come November and keeping his mug in the papers will certainly help Rudy reach his goal.