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Charmless Billionaire to President: "You Have to Connect"
If David Axelrod—the former Obama adviser whose memoir is soon to be published—is to be believed, the president received some advice on charm from an unlikely source early in his first term. The Daily News, which obtained an advance copy of Axelrod's book, relates the story:
On a trip to New York City in 2009, then Mayor Mike Bloomberg offered unsolicited advice about Obama's demeanor. "'You know what his problem is? You have to like people to be successful. You have to connect," Bloomberg told Axelrod. "I saw him greet people at the golf course. You probably told him to do it. But he doesn't feel it. You have to have that!"
Assuming the veracity of this quote, there's a lot to unpack here. It really is something for a mayor—even a generally popular big city mayor—to give a popularly elected president advice on how "to be successful," especially when that mayor's national, aisle-spanning unpopularity thwarted his plans to run for higher office.
It's even funnier that "you have to like people" is advice Mayor Michael Bloomberg would have given to anyone, considering that his considerable political success happened in spite of his irritable, hostile personality and obvious misanthropy. If Bloomberg liked people, as opposed to considering them a pesky but necessary nuisance in his otherwise perfectly engineered technocratic dream city, he managed to hide that fact for three long terms in office. Bloomberg didn't much seem to like critics of his treatment of pregnant employees, uneducated parents, New Yorkers of color who were tired of being routinely harassed by the NYPD, and people who criticized his atrocious homelessness policies. Not to mention reporters! ("'Miss!' Mr. Bloomberg began. 'I'm sorry that my English isn't apparently good enough for you.'" He hated reporters, but that doesn't count because everyone hates reporters. In general, Bloomberg just hated critics.
more
http://justice.gawker.com/charmless-billionaire-to-president-you-have-to-connec-1683768509/+maxread
