It was an odd experience reading the local election results in the US this week, a case of not knowing what to do with one’s feelings. Democratic gains were, of course, cause for good cheer. But political optimism, along with trust in analysis and faith in the accuracy of polling data, belong to the certainties of the pre-Trump world. The failure of Trumpism in Virginia and New Jersey were good signs; but so what?

Even the re-election of Bill de Blasio for a second term as mayor of New York had some head-scratching elements to it. It was a comfortable victory over Republican Nicole Malliotakis, with De Blasio winning 66% of the vote. In spite of this, to call him a popular mayor isn’t quite right. His progressive policies have been largely successful – most notably, his introduction of universal free pre-school for four-year-olds in the city, an initiative he wants to roll out to three-year-olds – yet there persists the sense that De Blasio is not equal to the task of stewarding a city such as New York.

This is probably down to style. There is thought to be something unforgivably shambling about him. His lateness to meetings is legendary. He persists in travelling an hour south of Gracie Mansion, the official mayor’s residence, to use the gym in his old neighbourhood in Brooklyn. This is an inexplicable eccentricity, given the bad publicity it generates, although I know some New Yorkers for whom it is so audacious a move as to constitute the mayor’s one dash of style.

Regardless, De Blasio is generally regarded to have neither the snap and hustle of a Bloomberg, nor the manic charm of an Ed Koch. He is a different political beast, less showy, more plodding. It is encouraging that a politician with such relatively low-watt charisma can win on the basis of a solid record in office. But that doesn’t mean anyone has to love him.

Stop taking the tabloids



‘During De Blasio’s first term, the New York Post portrayed him almost daily as a scary crypto-socialist.’ Photograph: ddp USA/Rex/Shutterstock

Perhaps the most startling thing about the mayoral race was the relatively insignificant role of the tabloids. During most of De Blasio’s first term, Murdoch’s New York Post portrayed him almost daily as a scary crypto-socialist with an anarchist wife who was coming to take your child’s lunch money. At one point, it practically called him a douchebag on the front page.

In Britain, the role of the rightwing press in electoral politics is taken seriously for good reason: governments appease tabloid editors and proprietors on the understanding they can swing elections (even if attempts to discredit Jeremy Corbyn have not so far had the intended effect). In New York, though, no one seems to take the blindest bit of notice. Three days before the election, the New York Post ran a typical piece under the headline All the reasons you shouldn’t vote for De Blasio. Still he won by a landslide.

I don’t know why this is, exactly. The tabloids in New York have never had the same reach as those in Britain, partly, I guess, because newspaper culture in the US is weaker and more decentralised, and partly because fewer people read them. (The New York Post has a circulation of around a quarter of a million, a fraction of that of the Sun.) Either way, some aspects of American democracy can still teach the old world a lesson.

First they take Manhattan …

‘At least some things in life remain constant.’ Daily Mail TV will be fronted by former NFL player Jesse Palmer. Photograph: John Minchillo/AP

We repay the Americans by exporting the Daily Mail to them, in this case in its exciting new television format. DailyMailTV is starting out small in New York as a recurring segment on the local news station PIX11 News. One has the feeling PIX11 doesn’t have a full handle on the implications of what the “Daily Mail” means, but anyway, according to the press release, the new segment will be fronted by “former NFL player and sports analyst Jesse Palmer”, who will “check in with reporters chasing down stories from bureaus all over the world”. (For which, one assumes, read a bunker in the aggregation galley of the Daily Mail’s New York offices.) At least some things in life remain constant.

• Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist