Is Bloomberg going to get in?

[Lord Jim]

I'm not as big a fan of his as I once was; he endorsed Obama in 2012, and I didn't think much of all the nanny state micro-managing nuisance regulations he got imposed towards the end of his time as mayor. However if the other two choices are Trump and Hillary, I'd certainly give him serious consideration. I'd have to learn where he stands on national defense and national security issues; I really have no idea what his stances are in those areas:

Bloomberg for President?

CNN)As he has for the last two presidential election cycles, former three-term New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg is doing a political fan-dance, playing peek-a-boo with party leaders intrigued by the prospect of a politically successful billionaire candidate from New York who actually has government experience, has been a Democrat, a Republican and an independent, and who doesn't resort to cussing, personal mockery and fact-free fantasizing on the stump.

Bloomberg has frequently denied any interest in seeking the presidency. "I'm not going to run for president, period," he said on national television in 2010. "End of story."

But that wasn't the end of the story. Just recently, Bloomberg commissioned a secret poll to find out if he'd be a viable candidate in 2016. Equally important, the fact the "secret" survey was taken was widely leaked and quickly became national news, fueling another round of speculation that Bloomberg may be thinking about jumping into the race.

After more than a decade of covering, interviewing and occasionally dining with Bloomberg, I'd say his denials of interest in the presidency, no matter how firm and definitive, should be taken with a huge grain of salt. I once saw Bloomberg and one of his top political aides, Kevin Sheekey, at a press conference in front of the West Wing shortly after the mayor met with President Obama to talk about education policy. When the press conference was over, you could see both men pause and look at the building covetously, almost hungrily.

And why not? Bloomberg enjoyed a spectacularly good run governing a city with more population than 40 of the 50 states. Like anybody else in the business of politics, it's natural for him to consider trying to climb to the pinnacle of the profession and become the most powerful man in the world.

Bloomberg even has the makings of a Cabinet in waiting in the form of top deputies who enjoy a national reputation: his former housing chief Shaun Donovan, who went on to run the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development and is now White House director of the Office of Management and Budget; his former health commissioner, Dr. Tom Frieden, currently serves as director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and his police commissioner, Ray Kelly, was rumored to be on the short list to become secretary of homeland security or FBI director.

Bloomberg's political brain trust includes one deputy mayor, Stephen Goldsmith, who was mayor of Indianapolis, and another, Howard Wolfson, who served as Hillary Clinton's communications director during the grueling 2008 primary campaign against Obama. They, along with Sheekey and Bill Cunningham, a former aide to the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, have a wealth of national experience.

But that's getting ahead of the game. To get to the Oval Office requires a candidate willing to make a 50-state run, and as recently as 2014, Bloomberg begged off yet again: "No is the answer. Plain and simple," he said on the "Today" show. "I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to make a better world for myself, for my kids, for my grandchildren."

So why the "secret" poll?

I'd say the obvious answer is the right one: Bloomberg has long been interested in the presidency, and will run if he sees any reasonable chance of making it happen.

Emphasis on "reasonable chance." Bloomberg has never been a party man -- a former Democrat, he was first elected mayor as a Republican but later changed his enrollment to nonaffiliated -- making it nearly impossible to mount a viable 50-state campaign in a system built and controlled by local and national party organizations.

"I am 100% convinced that you cannot in this country win an election unless you are the nominee of one of the two major parties," Bloomberg told New York Magazine in 2013. "The second thing I am convinced of is that I could not get through the primary process with either party."

He's right. The last time we elected a president who wasn't a Democrat or a Republican was in 1848, when Zachary Taylor won on the Whig Party line; since then, third-party candidates have waged intriguing but futile quests for the White House. The most successful of these efforts came in 1912, when Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt lost with 29% of the vote -- and in that case, Roosevelt had already served a term as president, and only launched the National Progressive Party (also known as the Bull Moose Party) because Republican insiders denied him the GOP nomination.

In 2016, when a fed-up public appears ready to make unconventional choices -- witness the rise of Donald Trump and "Democratic socialist" Bernie Sanders -- some are wondering whether the time is ripe for Bloomberg to step in.

Wall Street leaders are said to be urging a run, and some recent leaks spell out a not entirely crazy scenario for Bloomberg, in which Republicans self-destruct through infighting and Democrats settle on Clinton after Sanders has forced her to tack to the left on a number of issues, creating a path for Bloomberg to run as a competent, sensible centrist.

As the speculation continues, there's a firm deadline approaching: the deadline to file paperwork to appear on the ballot in many states is March 1. If Bloomberg's polling and the course of the Republican and Democratic races all line up, there's a slim chance that we'll see a candidacy from the man a wisecracking Piers Morgan once dubbed "the greatest president that America never had."

http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/13/opinions/ ... t-chances/

[Big RR]

I don't think so Jim, Bloomberg has a big mouth and an arrogant attitude that plays well among some in NYC, but I doubt would play well elsewhere. this attitude was especially seen when he chose to run for a third term after promising not to, and pushed on a lot of nanny state reforms when the city had much bigger problems.

[Lord Jim]

I don't think so Jim, Bloomberg has a big mouth and an arrogant attitude that plays well among some in NYC, but I doubt would play well elsewhere.

Well Big RR, an arrogant guy with a big mouth is currently running neck-and-neck with Hilary Clinton in the polls, so maybe this is the year for an arrogant guy with a big mouth...

In fact compared to Trump, Bloomberg, (Much like Christie) seems like the soul of humility and civility....

[wesw]

man, you try to take a southerner s big ass Pepsi away from them and you might get an ass full of rocksalt to take back to new York with you....

puh-leese....

let it go jim, it wouldn t hurt trump one little bit. Hillary would be screaming tho...., so run nanny Bloomberg , run!

pepsi for everyone!!!!!

[Big RR]

Well Jim--if we're talking about winning a few primaries and polling well early on, then he may well have a chance. But I think people will tire of him (just as they will of Trump), and think their chances of getting either the nomination or winning the presidency are roughly the same, slim to none. Of course, I have no crystal ball and could well be wrong (in the past I thought there was no way W could have been reelected ).

As for you point about Christie--think how bad Trump has to be to cast Christie in that light--I never would have thought it possible.

[Lord Jim]

Wes, I think Bloomberg would pull votes from both Trumpty and Hilary as well as a significant chunk of independents...

Believe it or not there are millions of Republicans like myself who cannot stomach Donald Trump but who would really prefer not to vote for Hilary Clinton...(This is why there's been a lot of talk about a possible independent Republican candidate if that horse's ass manages to cobble together the plurality of votes to get the nomination.)

Bloomberg would certainly not be my idea of the ideal candidate but if the other choices are Hillary and Trump, he starts looking a lot better...

On the other side there are plenty of Democrats who aren't thrilled about Clinton because of all the ethical questions swirling around her, and Bloomberg is liberal enough on social issues that a lot of these folks would consider him...

And he would also pull support from independents who want somebody who isn't part of the system...He has a lot of the qualities that these folks find attractive about Trump (he'd self finance his campaign, and not be beholden to any "special interests", he's a successful businessman, etc.) without all the fact-free and bat shit crazy stuff...

Econo:

As for you point about Christie--think how bad Trump has to be to cast Christie in that light--I never would have thought it possible.

Yes, The Donald has certainly raised,(or lowered, depending on how you look at it) the standards for complete obnoxiousness for a major Presidential candidate...

We've talked about Trump pandering to the lowest common denominator, but I think what he does is actually worse then that....

What he does isn't just to pander; he proactively works to drive that denominator ever lower...

Before he came along, I doubt that the lowest common denominator was low enough to believe that we could get Mexico to pay for a border wall, or that thousands of Muslims cheered in New Jersey on 9/11, or that we could realistically deport eleven million people in a way that would be remotely Constitutional, or that we could ban people en masse from entering the country simply based on their religion, or shut down their places of worship, or that it was acceptable behavior for a major Presidential candidate to swear like a sailor at public events, or mock people with disabilities, or publicly call anyone that disagrees with him stupid and/or a loser, etc, etc, etc,....

That's all on him. I don't think any of that had even occurred to anyone before...

Another charming quality of Trump's is that he doesn't just exploit exiting fears; (though of course he does plenty of that...) no, that's not good enough for him...

He deliberately seeks drive up the fear level and creates whole new things that he tells the Trumpanzees they need to be afraid of...

He strives deliberately to drive up the toxicity level of the national political discourse in a multitude of ways; through mendacity, vulgarity, bullying, etc. because the more toxic the environment, the better it is for him. He thrives on it.

[wesw]

anyway, independents don t like or need nannies, and that is who Bloomberg is to America. a controlling nanny. he has no chance of hurting trump.

and I believe you, I just disagree with you. I don t question your motives, just your decision.

[Big RR]

The only thing good about Trump is, if he were to win, he'd be a completely ineffective president due to his inability to work and play well with others. Congress on both sides of the aisle would stonewall him, and might well impeach him if he tried to act unilaterally--my guess is he wouldn't make it to the mid term election.

Not that I'd welcome a Trump presidency, but I do think there are other candidates who know how government works and could do far worse to the country than him.

[rubato]

The existing Republican field is shit. None of them have even a chance in the general election. He looks like the voice of reason compared to Carly-girl, Carson, Cruz, Rubio et al.

The soda thing is a detail. Nothing. Merely an opening move in what will be a longer process of weaning people from sugary drinks.



yrs,
rubato

[wesw]

nah, big RR had it right.

[Gob]

Hang about here!?!?

Despite having about six months of the (admittedly hysterically funny,) Trump and Hilary show, are yup still saying that other's could come into the race?

[dales]

The existing Republican field is shit.


yrs,
rubato

As you've probably believed since your first started to vote.

Nothing new here.

[RayThom]

I'm waiting for Joe Biden to jump back in. Any day now... any day...

Biden/Warren... 2016