From the Thursday edition of the pinch-hit “Morning Jolt”:

De Blasio and the Uber-Menschen
Bill de Blasio, 60 to 0 in . . .:
The de Blasio administration has backed away from its fight with the app company Uber, agreeing on Wednesday to drop for now its plan to place a cap on the number of vehicles Uber operates in New York City. . . .
Under an agreement with the company, the city will conduct a four-month study on the effect of Uber and other for-hire vehicle operators on New York’s traffic.
“For now” is an important caveat in this arrangement, and I am confident that the City will get just the results it wants in this “study.” But oh, man, this is embarrassing. The de Blasio administration, which had already chosen as targets du jour Central Park’s horse-drawn carriage industry and the New York Police Department, decided that it should start in on the hit ride-sharing service Uber. (By the by, coincidentally, totally unrelated, Bill de Blasio pocketed $500,000 in campaign donations from the yellow-cab barons in 2013.)
Uber responded with a campaign of pure shock-and-by-god-awe. The San Francisco–based company aired television ads criticizing the mayor, it held rallies outside City Hall, it challenged de Blasio to a public debate (he declined) — it added to its cellphone app a “de Blasio feature,” which showed hypothetical driver availability and wait times if the mayor’s cap went through. My personal favorite tactic: Uber made an ad buy on public transit — now as you’re walking Lexington Ave., you see MTA buses displaying ads for Uber. That’s Grade-A trolling.
On Monday, de Blasio whined to reporters, “Uber is a multibillion-dollar corporation, and they’re acting like one.” No shift-stick, Sherlock. Mr. Mayor: When you set out to kill the king . . .
I’ve no idea if Uber would do it, but the prospect of the company contributing big bucks to a de Blasio challenger in a primary or the next general is uber-delicious.