Behold the delusional vanity of the man who knows what’s best for eight million Americans (300 million, if God forbid, he could rise that far). Mayor Michael Bloomberg was asked if he remembers when he became an anti-gun crusader:

No, but I did get interested in public health a long time ago, as you know. And I think, as mayor, my responsibility is to do everything I can is to do everything I can to protect the health and safety and increase the longevity of the people that live in this city. As an American, and as a human being, I have a responsibility to not push, to not force anybody to do anything but to explain what I think and to educate people to the extent of what I believe that would be in their self-interest.

When he has used government power to restrict distribution of pain pills, ban Big Gulps, extract every trans-fat, and eliminate even outdoor smoking, he was merely explaining his point of view so convincingly that the entirety of his giant city was successfully converted at the point of a sword wonder of his intellect. One wonders how many people he’d convince without a police force.

As Bloomberg once said of this form of persuasion in a moment of greater candor: “We’re just forcing you to understand.”

If only he’d been more intent on persuading city services and infrastructure to be prepared for Hurricane Sandy.