Message: I Could Not Care Less

A strange thing starts to happen when you lose focus and start to slow down in advance of leaving office — more people approve of your job performance — less “limited government” than “limiting your government.” Or perhaps it just proves that “the less you do . . .”:

While Mr. Bloomberg has had an uneven 2011, dragged down in polls by last winter’s blizzard and Cathleen P. Black’s brief stint as schools chancellor, he has ended the year on an upswing, with 49 percent of those polled saying that they approved of his job performance, and 42 percent saying they did not. Voters liked his policies, by a margin of 52 percent to 43 percent. And they held him in even higher regard personally; 64 percent said they liked the mayor, while 24 percent said they did not.