Mayor Mike hasn’t been able to buy out all his critics. In a rare excoriation of Bloomberg from the mainstream media, Errol Louis, a political columnist for the Daily News, has this to say:

Bloomberg has already spent $18.6 million on flacks, hacks, pollsters and preachers. The sum includes more than $15 million spent in the last two months alone on TV, radio and direct mail advertising.

That over-the-top rate of spending is about twice the amount Bloomberg had shelled out by May of 2005, when he launched a re-election campaign that ended up costing a record-breaking $80 million.

Even President Obama has taken notice of Bloomy’s big-bucks binge and seemingly inevitable fall victory. At the recent White House Correspondents Association dinner, Obama drew hearty laughs from the nation’s political and press elites by vowing to meet with “a leader who rules over millions with an iron first, who owns the airwaves and uses his power to crush all who would challenge his authority at the ballot box … it’s good to see you, Mayor Bloomberg.”

But don’t start the coronation just yet. Several key indicators suggest that the race remains close and could get much closer before November…

…”The electorate now divides over whether Mayor Michael Bloomberg deserves to be re-elected,” Marist pollster Lee Miringoff said in a written summary of his findings. “Forty-seven percent say that he should receive a third term while 48% say, ‘No.’”

Read the rest of the column here: The Daily News