The death of the Bloomberg dream?
We may finally be at a point in which we can stop talking about New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his subtle-but-not-really interest in launching an independent presidential campaign.
There have been several reports of late indicating that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) had been one of the high-profile figures urging Bloomberg to consider a third-party campaign. Of course, the encouragement looks a little hollow now that Schwarzenegger has given his enthusiastic support to John McCain.
Worse, the Unity08 gang folded their tent to create a Draft Bloomberg campaign, which has an online petition that is yet to generate 5,000 signatures — weeks after its launch. Adding insult to injury, Joe Lieberman, an active Bloomberg supporter during the mayor’s re-election campaign, has said publicly that the mayor no longer has a reason to launch a campaign.
When the New York Observer talked to Bloomberg organizer Karin Gallet about the future, he said:
“He’s not running. He’s convinced me. I’m returning to more obtainable goals like passing my business law class and supporting moderate Republicans! […]
“We have not mustered up any kind of significant groundswell support. I think Bloomberg is just too good for this country.”
Misplaced sycophancy aside, even the mayor seems to realize this isn’t going to happen. Sorry, David Broder.
Filed right next to the Thompson dream.
Now let's hope that Nader gets a clue from Bloomberg.
Bloomberg is a good mayor. For the most part he is a pragmatist. He is just interested in getting things done and is no ideologue.
But as Rudy and Thompson proved you have to get out and run. And run in ALL the states.
Bloomberg barely put a toe in the water. If he had gotten out there and applied his wealth and contacts to the task he would make a showing.
This will only be unfortunate if Billary wins the Democratic nomination.
Someone was talking about Bloomberg?
My, my.
It's hard to puncture a dream that is buoyed by billows of buoyant billion-dollar bills.
David Broder, there goes your VP spot...awwwww...lol. I think 'Larry the Cable Guy' is more in touch with the American people than little boom.
The whole motivation behind Unity '08 and a possible Bloomberg run was establishment fears of a resurgent Democratic majority. Now that faux moderate McCain is the Republican frontrunner and congressional Democrats have thrown in the towel on oversight and investigation as well as abandoning there allegiance to workers and the middle class, the establishment can rest easy.
What can you really expect when all you'd hear about this is a tiny blurb of "michael bloomberg may but may not run for president" every 3 weeks. You have to make people know you're going to run, a half-assed commitment all the way towards the end of the primaries isn't going to get anyone to take you seriously. If you don't actually run they'll have not invested themselves trying to get the lesser-of-two-evils elected and end up with another GWB.
Karin Gallet might want to try a different sort of law, she doesn't seem to understand the marketing aspect of selling a product. Not that it'll matter a huge amount being on the law side, I just wanted to say something snide about the lack of business sense in hyping up a potential Bloomberg campaign. Kinda ironic.
[Not a Ron Paul thread-Sitemonitor]
Tom the cat . . . excuse me
Come on Bloomie, run!! The economy could use another $100 mil or so pumped into it! Mittwit Robotney's doin' his part!
Guess his WH asspirations were short-lived... (I cain' hep masef!)
I'm not sure why the whole "possible Bloomberg independent candidacy" thing even registered a blip on the radar. He has less of a national profile than Giuliani and isn't even all that respected in NYC, is he? Not exactly the second coming.
Maybe he could have polled 5% as a result of the "anybody but Hillary and McCain" vote, but that's it.
Avid Reader@10
Isn't there a Libertarian or neo-Nazi blog somewhere you can go to where they might care about Ron Paul? We don't.
This goes down as the week that we successfully attacked two media-generated narratives:
1. Rudy is loved by New York and has a shot at winning Florida.
2. Expect Bloomberg to run. You can bet on it. And if he does, all bets on the Democrats are off.
Bloomy explored it too late, but drew the same conclusion he would have drawn anyway - he wasn't going to win the White House the same way he won NYC, through mass mailings and outspending every opponent. It simply wasn't going to work. The Heartland was not going to accept a short, Jewish, anti-smoking guy who'd rather take a helicopter to work than ride the 6 Train (and the 6 Train turns them off too). Lewis Lapham was right - Bloomy is a little putz.
If Schwartzeneger supports McCain and he is also a friend of Bloomberg and has encouraged him to run, does this mean that Bloomberg would be satisfied that McCain is not an extremist candidate? (There's a syllogism lurking somewhere in there.) LOL, I thought that was why Bloomberg wanted to run in the first place, so that the nation would not be facing two extremes and that there would be more bi-partisanship. McCain's the answer? I don't think so.
Heh, sorry sitemonitor, I was posting as you were deleting. If you need, feel free to delete my last post so as not to derail the thread. ;)
Snowball @ 17:
nah, leave it on - it's funny, lol
I wasn't aware that we were talking about Bloomberg's campaign?
It's been DOA, as far as most people are concerned.
I cannot believe any Republicans are getting behind Insane McCain. There is something that I am not getting here. How can more people believe that McCain is a better choice than Bloomberg? It's like I'm watching a bunch of Lemmings jump off a cliff.
Unity '08 and Bloomberg are all about the kind of contrived false equivalence that creates the appearance that Republicans are more moderate and Democrats are more extreme than is actually the case. Just why were these people running so scared of a resurgent Democratic majority in the face of an imploding Republican party? That's a rhetorical question which I've already answered above.
Lawrence @ 20:
They want to win in '08 and they are making a sensible choice. They know that to win, the next Republican nominee must have an image (it doesn't matter if we on the left know it's wholly contrived) of being a straight talking moderate maverick so he can run as a non-Republican Republican. You can be sure that McCain will appoint a hard right winger to the Supreme Court and pursue a foreign policy of belligerent nationalism while shifting the tax burden from the wealthy onto the shoulders of the working middle class. He'll even get blue dogs to climb aboard that agenda and call it bi-partisan.
The dream lives on - Ralph Nader got it now
SR913 @ 13:
He is NOT respected at all in NYC. Bloomberg = kind of non-appetizing hemorrhoid (it's there, cannot get rid of it, so, wait till it falls off..).
From decades-long New Yorker: Bloomberg and ANY dream don't ever go together. OXYMORON.
Bloomberg? Dream? More like nightmare. Ya, we need another rich, elitist asshole in "government".
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Yawn.... Can't say I'm surprised... Bloomie, whatever anyone thinks of him pro or con.. isn't the dude to launch a ligitimate third party candidacy... His explorations, such as they may have been, didn't even match the feverish (hahahah)pace of Fredo Thompson.... Apparently the lesson to both are, ya just can't sleepwalk thru this shit......JD
test....JD
test...JD
Sorry for the non-sequitur post folks... Was having some technical issues seeing my posts... Evidently they have magically self corrected.....JD
It's always a chuckle when a sitting mayor of NYC is surprised to discover that a country exists west of the Hudson that could hardly care less about him. I seem to recall John Lindsey once considered himself presidential timber, too.
We're already going to have Ralph Nader on the ballot in November. How many egotistical gasbags can we stand in one campaign?
PArt of me wisher sthat Bloomberg ran so that he would spend sooo much money and end up losing anyway :-)
I hope Ralp Nader runs then. He said if Hillary is given the nomination, he will run! I hope so!
Good riddance, Mayor Mike. Take your extensive 50 state poll papers and burn them up with a nice Marlboro Light.
watercarrier4diogenes @ 2:
Nader can run again if he wants. He was a non factor in '04 and he'll prove to be even less of a factor this year.
Unity '08 was an absolute joke. Who did these clowns think they were fooling? Did they honestly think that after 8 years of chimpy, the sane Democrats and liberals were going to split our vote again? Good riddance idiots.
I always saw his effort as pointless.
It looks like Nader may run. And Ron Paul may well organize a third party run, he has support everywhere. Bloomberg would just look like an irrelevent corporate lapdog trying to play spoiler.
I was born and raised in New York, but I can't help laughing when the NY media trots out the ethnic New Yorker du jour and claims that the person has a prayer to be President. I said a year ago that Rudolph Giuliani, an ethnic, bald, serial marrying, philandering, criminal associating New Yorker with 2 speech impediments (not just his lisp but his pronouncing of the letter l as in "Fwowida") would never be accepted by Middle America. Bloomberg may lack a few of these hindrances, but you can add teeny tiny to his list of obstacles. New York Media, get out of your cocoon and get a clue.
What do you mean by "ethnic"? Everybody who's not a WASP?
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