Thursday, April 10, 2008

MCCAIN IN THE RIDGE


Senator McSame, aka the Short Fuse, was in Bay Ridge today. He gave a short speech at Windows We Are, a window store owned by Yoda. Party big wigs Marty Golden and Mayor Bloomberg came out to the Ridge to join McSame. After his speech, The Short Fuse had a slice of pepperoni pizza at Verrazano Pizza on 4th Avenue and 91st Street.

Unfortunately I was unable to see the festivities. I spent the afternoon at a wake for a good friend's father. Ironically, my friend's father showed more life than McSame.

19 comments:

The Phantom said...

The only other presidential candidate I recall visiting Bay Ridge was Gary Hart, who visited what was then a bar at the NW corner of 69th Street and Third (where the optometrist is now )

His campaign crashed soon afterward!

Way back when, I believe that John Kennedy visited, in 1960?

Rob K said...

Ironically, my friend's father showed more life than McSame.

Zing! And I love it.

Anonymous said...

Brooklyn didn't deserve this.

Brooklyn has consistently backed other Republican presidential candidates for president than McCain for years.

Brooklyn was foolishly Rudy country up to not too long ago.

John McCain: Where was Brooklyn when it counted?

The Phantom said...

anonymous

Why not have the balls to pick a name so people will have some idea who you are?

And why are you jumping on multiple blogs with the identical comment?

For your education, Rudy was the best mayor this city has had in many decades, and Bay Ridge was correct in providing him with strong support during his three elections for mayor.

Rob K said...

Mike Dukakis came to Bay Ridge during his campaign and spoke at one of the schools. I wish I could remember which one, since I covered the event for the Home Reporter. He was actually very good, believe it or not.

Oh, btw, Rudy was fear-mongering egomaniac who divided this city with his scare tactics and bullheaded style. St. Rudy of 911 has ascended into windbag heaven on a cloud of hot air and let's hope he doesn't come back.

Anonymous said...

Amen Rob K.

On the pizza note, that's just about the oddest place for McCain to have gone for pizza...

Anonymous said...

LOLz @ the anonymous "phantom" busting a no named anonymous poster's chops for being anonymous.

Take a chill pill dude.

The Phantom said...

robk

Don't be so sure that he won't be back.

Whatever faults he had,

a) he drove the astonishing, and apparently permanent, reductions in crime in this city and

b) he led the city with grace and confidence during the day of 9/11 and the terrible days afterward.

No honest man can take those things away from him.

And, if he had done nothing else in his public life, those are truly immense accomplishments.

Anonymous said...

rudy cleaned up this city. anyone who thinks differently either lives in a bubble or has no clue what nyc was like before rudy.

Rob K said...

Speaking as a lifelong New York, I can say with complete confidence that Rudy cleaned up the city in his own little twisted mind.

Some of the anti-crime programs he took credit for were actually started in the previous administration.

And he couldn't stand sharing the limelight with Commissioner Bratton, so he had to go and he's now the police chief in L.A.

Rudy shamelessly exploited his 9/11 experience for his failed presidential bid--thank you, God!--where he went around the country telling people how he had saved New York itself.

Then there's Bernie Kerik, cops driving his mistress around, and the pathetic lie about spending as much time at Ground Zero as the emergency workers.

New York Magazine did a fabulous article about Rudy vs. Reality and it can be a pretty sobering read for people who thought this guy was a hero.

For others, it was no surprise whatsoever.

The Phantom said...

Yep

Rudy had a lot of help ...from the great NYPD and from super managers like Bill Bratton who he hired and theorists like Jack Maple who he enabled...

but without Rudy, and his "bullheaded style", this city would be more like the wreck it was coming to be under the Lindsay through Dinkins eras, rather than the vastly more livable place that it is today.

I saw what it was and I see what it is. I'll take what we have now. These are the good old days, and Rudy was the prime mover in making it so.

Anonymous said...

Rudy didn't clean up the city.

Bratton did.

Once people recognized Bratton's brilliance, that egomaniac Rudy got jealous and kicked him out.

The Phantom said...

See my earlier comment. Rudy hired Bratton. Who was a great commissioner, and who was smart enough to listen to the late great Jack Maple.

Part of being a leader is hiring good people, and Rudy did hire Bratton.

And, much as I was pissed at Bratton's being forced out, one must admit that crime did continue to drop after his departure.

Anonymous said...

Crime dropped because of the cops, not because of Rudy.

Why didn't Rudy ever give the cops a contract and reward them salary-wise?

All City Hall ever talks about is "productivity." The damned public schools fail and fail again, but teachers make a lot more than cops. Meanwhile, cops actually were successful.

If Rudy was such a great guy, he would have rewarded cops and fixed the public schools.

Rudy did neither.

The Phantom said...

anon

You're bringing in extraneous issues. I'll stand by what I've said.

Anonymous said...

"Some of the anti-crime programs he took credit for were actually started in the previous administration."

hahaha, that's the funniest thing i ever heard. so the dinkins administration was responsible for the crime reducing policies? i can see giving bratton credit, but dinkins? please. also, bratton left the giuliani administration yet crime kept going down. rudy led and continued the charge. however much of a douche rudy may be in his personal life, you can't negate the positive (and lasting) effect his leadership had on this city.

The Phantom said...

anon

Some of our lib friends are trying to rewrite recent history here. It's actually cute, so easily disproven, esp by those who remember what NYC was like before and after Giuliani

Rob K said...

The Rudy cultists sure die hard. The guy was a fraud; deal with it.

The only smart thing he did was hire Bratton and then his bloated ego couldn't handle all the press Bratton was getting, so he chased him out.

Then he gave us Kerik the one-man crime wave.

I wish I could rewrite history because this blowhard would be the first item to go.

But if you want to deify this clown, knock yourself out. Just doesn't expect everyone to drink the Koolaide.

Have a nice day.

Rob K said...

From Salon:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/conason/2007/11/16/giuliani_kerik/


"Why crime suddenly dropped in New York as well as other cities across the country around 1991, and continued to fall, remains a hotly disputed question among police experts and academics.

"As economist and "Freakonomics" coauthor Steven Levitt pointed out in a lucid paper on urban crime rates, every large city in America enjoyed decreases in homicides and other major crimes almost simultaneously.

"While New York topped the list for some indicators, other cities like San Diego, Seattle and Austin, Texas, ranked close behind, and by some measures surpassed New York.

"Many believe that one of the most important factors in New York's crime drop was the addition of thousands of new officers to the NYPD -- a policy decision costing a billion dollars that was made by David Dinkins, the predecessor whose mayoral record Giuliani often derides.

"While Giuliani kept hiring more cops, nearly half of those added to the force during his first term were financed by a tax surcharge that Dinkins demanded and won.

"But the city's first African-American mayor is usually blamed for a crime wave that rose well before he took office and rarely wins any plaudits for his role in stemming the criminal tide. "