Before Mr. Bloomberg took this controversial step -- remember when Rudolph W. Giuliani got clobbered for seeking three more months in office after Sept. 11? -- he made the rounds and locked up the support of the editorial pages of The New York Post, The New York Times and The Daily News, three city newspapers not known for moving in lock step.
The Daily News had to do something of a backflip, having frantically opposed any effort to change limits. The New York Times has historically opposed term limits for city offices, so it was less of a walk.
The New York Post was far and away the most enthusiastic: On Sept. 30, the day after the Dow dropped a historic 777 points, the far bigger headline on the cover of The Post nonetheless belonged to "Mike the III."
To set the stage, the mayor had spent the last month making plain his interest in staying put at City Hall. He did not post a Web site or drop items in various blogs, but instead called Howard J. Rubenstein, a master of the city's power grid. Meetings were set up with the owners of the daily newspapers, as well as with potential opponents and the city's corporate overlords.