Bloomberg to run?

wineturtle wrote: Alas gone are grander times and people. Cafe Society is now defined by the Hamburgler and Paris Hilton, gone forever nice zebra striped wallpaper and that Shepards pie they served to those never too thin nor too tan ladies that lunch at the Whiffenpoof on 75th and Lex.

Whiffenpoof at 75th and Lex? Is there such a place? Tables down at Mory's, Place where Louie dwells? Say it ain't so.

Or a sidelong ref to Mortimer's? Glenn Bernbaum may have been a poof but he was never a Whiff.

This should set things up well for Hillary/Obama. Bloomberg runs as an independent. All the disenfranchised conservatives leave the Republican Party to the Evangelicals and vote for Bloomberg. He draws a significant percentage of middle of the road male Democrats who would rather vote for Satan before they cast a vote for Hillary. They effectively offset each other. That leaves the Evangelicals on the right and the Oprahites on the left deciding who will lead us into the next decade...

Since there is no viable religious Republican out there (Mormons don't count so that leaves Brownback?) Hillary will win with 35% of the vote. This is going to be fun...

I can't wait to hear all the male belly-aching about moving to Canada...

This is just an attempt by the Clinton's to repeat what they did to get Bubba elected. Put an independent into the race to split the vote enough so Hillary can squeak in with about 40% of the popular vote and still clean up in the electoral college.

Lucius Beebe wrote:

Whiffenpoof at 75th and Lex? Is there such a place? Tables down at Mory's, Place where Louie dwells? Say it ain't so.

Or a sidelong ref to Mortimer's? Glenn Bernbaum may have been a poof but he was never a Whiff.

'twas what was there before Glenn opened Morts in the early '70's. The Wiff served those same ladies Mortimers was just a paintjob opening. Now Orsay frogs up the corner.

there are several reasons why Bloomberg is "attractive" As another poster said, he has actually done something to make his millions and he is not embarrassed to stand up and point out the importance of his succes (unlike Gore's shying away from his role in internet development).

I take exception to Bloomberg's religion not playing a role. Granted, he will not "run on faith" but he will also push for logic and science and thought over blind faith. He also would hire people in his cabinet who have legitimate reasons to be there. I doubt the DOJ would be comprised of graduates from Pat Robertson's university. I also doubt he'd hire underqualified cheerleaders from Yeshiva University.

I think one of the interesting pieces of this discussion is the idea of campaign finance reform. He will be allowed to pay out of his pocket the millions of dollars necessary to stay in the race. Is that better or worse than current candidates who will owe favors to special interest groups?

we are all relatively at ease with Bloomberg putting up the money because he is a good guy - but we can all imagine rich bigots who could also run.

A big reason that Bloomberg is attractive is that he approaches his role as mayor in the same way he approached his business. He's creative in getting solutions to problems, but he never loses sight on the fact that work needs to be done.

Remember how he handled the Transit strike?

He is the kind of person who would be an AMAZING leader. I would love for him to run this country. Our current system makes me think twice about whether or not I think his candidacy will help or hurt our future (since it seems likely that a 3rd party can win)

Our country would be a much better place with Bloomberg in a top leadership position -

Jefe in the CO wrote:

This should set things up well for Hillary/Obama. Bloomberg runs as an independent. All the disenfranchised conservatives leave the Republican Party to the Evangelicals and vote for Bloomberg. This is going to be fun...

i just do not see conservatives voting for him. he is pro choice, pro gay rights/marriage...

there are of course social and fiscal conservatives and they are not always the same, but often are.

maybe i am wrong, but there seems to be just enough about him that will make everyone dislike him, just for different reasons.

i think he can get in and make a splash since he has the money to stay in and get on tv, but i just do not see him making any impact. i cant even figure out who he hurts more if he runs - repubs or dems.

maybe he finds a following of people who are just fed up with everyone and so they vote for someone not associated with a political party. i dont think that gets far though. people that fed up, generally opt out of things and just dont vote at all.

i think he is getting talk because people are tired of hearing about hillary, obama, mccain, and soon even fred thompson and so he something new to talk about.

this is going to be a long long campaign. too long. election fatigue has already set in for a lot of people.

i love bloomberg wrote:

there are several reasons why Bloomberg is "attractive" As another poster said, he has actually done something to make his millions and he is not embarrassed to stand up and point out the importance of his succes (unlike Gore's shying away from his role in internet development).

his success is admirable and i dont doubt he is a bright guy,

if he runs it will be interesting, no question about that.

I like him.

I think the best part about him is that he has enough money to finance the whole campaign by himself. No big donors, no special interest groups. We may not have situations where industry leaders are appointed government positions to lead agencies to oversee their own industry. Maybe "big oil" won't be writing the country's energy policy and "big defense" won't be writing the foreign policy. That could give him the ability to be open and honest in trying to solve some of the country's problems. He doesn't care whos toes he steps on, because he doesn't owe anyone any special favors.

i love bloomberg wrote:

A big reason that Bloomberg is attractive is that he approaches his role as mayor in the same way he approached his business. He's creative in getting solutions to problems, but he never loses sight on the fact that work needs to be done.

Remember how he handled the Transit strike?

I haven't always agreed with his policies, but his style is really remarkable. Almost every other politician wants to appear to be 'a fighter' and will publicly trash people or groups he wants to cast as villians. Not Bloomberg. When various union leaders or people in the City Council or State Legislature tried to goad him into a fight, he kept diplomatic publicly, and privately worked on achieving his agenda. And it worked.

Maybe it's because he's been so successful before entering politics and knows he could buy and sell these hacks twenty times before breakfast, but he seems to have no need to bolster his ego at the expense of others. He ignores the insults, remains gracious, and ends up getting what he wants.

if he runs, it hurts the democrats much more than it hurts the republicans.

at best, he takes votes and electoral votes away from the states where he is well known. those states would be CT, NY, NJ, CA and those are all blue states.

He is not the same as ross Perot who ended up taking more away from Bush than Clinton.

His social agenda is better than clinton's and democrats who don't want clinton in the white house, will vote for Bloomberg. A moderate republican still seems to be fooled that Rudy is the right man (even with his flip flopping, inability to do anything for people living outside of the upper east side, tenuous race relations and corrupt cabinet)

heard there are rumors that he'll run with Hagel.

Oh, someone said something about Arnold as VP. Technically, Arnold could run as VP BUT if anything happened to the Pres, the presidency would go to the Speaker. there is NO way that ticket gets elected if Arnold would have to sede (sp?) control to Speaker Pelosi.

But i think people are wrong when they believe that Bloomberg would hurt the Dems way more than the Republicans.Ross Perot was Pro-Choice and an Environmentalist(before it became mainstream) and still did way better among registered Republicans.

In a Hillary-Thompson/Romney/Brownback race it would be 50-50 loss of votes to Bloomberg at best for the Republicans.

Arnold can't run for VP but he might join Bloomberg by running for some job in the cabinet.