Bloomberg or Menino: Who Looked Less Pleased to Greet His Successor?
No one likes ceding power, and Boston’s Mayor Menino and New York’s Mayor Bloomberg are two very big non-exceptions—so much so that people in both cities made the same snarky suggestion that the mayors had voted for themselves Tuesday. The write-in campaign didn’t work, though, so which of the long-serving mayors is less excited to meet their usurper this morning?
Pictures and body language can tell us a lot about a person, and going off of the photos tweeted out showing Mayor Bloomberg and Mayor Menino meeting with their respective successors Bill de Blasio and Marty Walsh this morning, we think we have an answer.
Here’s Menino with Walsh, tweeted, notably, by Menino’s office.
Welcoming Mayor-elect Walsh to City Hall this morning pic.twitter.com/g71ZoKGXjY
— Mayor Tom Menino (@mayortommenino) November 6, 2013
Here’s Bloomberg with de Blasio.
Michael Bloomberg is not impressed with Bill de Blasio http://t.co/5T7X97nRtK pic.twitter.com/reTNHhrBV9
— The Atlantic Wire (@TheAtlanticWire) November 6, 2013
(Fun fact, all four men pictured here are Red Sox fans, though Bloomberg and Menino have big asterisks next to that definition.)
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner!
But wait: this might just be a case of Mayor Bloomberg looking sour as a general principle. After all, other stuff that’s made him frown through the years includes Kermit the Frog, Bette Midler, giant “LOL” signs, groundhogs, small children, Rudy Giuliani, and chorus lines. (Credit to the New Republic for that list.)
NYC Mayor’s Office
Plus, if you go by the Associated Press photo, Bloomberg actually looked sort of warm in his meeting. This might just be a case of Bloomberg being taken out of context.
Associated Press
So let’s look at some non-photographic factors. One is that Menino reeeeally likes being the mayor. He “choked back tears” on election day as he attended a playground ribbon-cutting. And he reportedly worked quietly to defeat Walsh in the campaign’s final weeks.
But that still pales in comparison to the New York situation. (This shouldn’t really surprise anyone as Bloomberg and de Blasio aren’t even in the same political party.) Like Menino, Bloomberg kept his vote to himself. But unlike hizzoner, he couldn’t help but make his concerns with de Blasio clear. No wonder at that. De Blasio in many ways made his campaign a rebuttal to the Bloomberg years, calling Bloomberg’s New York a “tale of two cities,” rich and poor. Bloomberg even once called the de Blasio campaign “racist” for prominently featuring his mixed-race family in a bid for support. (It didn’t go over well.)
Nah, we’re going to give this one to Bloomberg. All things considered, Menino has done better than many expected at keeping his opinions to himself.
