Update: Read Room 8 blog‘s piece dissecting each of the “9 points” of the Bloomberg “9 point plan.”  Well done!

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Clyde Haberman takes on Mayor Bloomberg‘s “State of the City” address, as our Mayor starts campaigning for his third term, in today’s New York Times stating: “What Mr. Bloomberg was really selling, of course, was not this or that program but rather himself.” He writes:

Many voters are appalled by what they see as his [Bloomberg’s] power grab. This refers to the way he and a compliant City Council majority trampled on the will of the people, as expressed in two referendums, by treating themselves to a shot at third terms. Mr. Bloomberg’s task now is to convince voters — and he’ll spend whatever portion of his billions it takes — that without him remaining at the helm in these dark days, we are done for.

“We will get New York City through these hard times with the same approach that has always worked for us: independent leadership based on facts and pragmatism, not politics and ideology,” he said.

“Politics” is Bloomberg-speak for what everybody running for office does — except for him. “Ideology” is an adherence to certain fundamentals of democracy that he finds inconvenient.

I think Mr. Haberman, while strong on the term limits issue, is not quite hard hitting enough about the Mayor’s record to date, touting the same statistics and notions that his p.r. department does (that people overall believe he’s been good for our city, etc., etc.).

For a dose of reality, read my take on the real state of our city: “The Blanding of New York City: Why It’s Time for Mayor Mike to Go.”