NEW YORK -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent who has considered running for president, declared Monday that an independent has a better chance at succeeding in the White House than a Republican or a Democrat.
The billionaire Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-independent mayor toyed with a third-party run in 2008 but ultimately abandoned the idea. He has said unequivocally he won't run in 2012, but during a forum at Harvard University on Monday he endorsed the idea of an independent in the White House.
"I think actually a third-party candidate could run the government easier than a partisan political president because the partisan political president - yeah he's got half the votes, but he can't get the others - whereas the guy in the middle may very well be able to get enough across the aisle," Bloomberg said.
The mayor, who founded the financial information company Bloomberg LP and whose fortune is estimated at $18 billion by Forbes magazine, is considered a potential, if long shot, candidate in 2012. He can afford to wait until well into the election year before he has to decide whether to run, largely because he doesn't have to raise money.
It also serves Bloomberg well to keep the door open and buzz alive because it sustains an air of mystery around him and makes him a relevant national figure well into the later years of his third term as the head of the nation's biggest city.
When asked during the forum Monday whether he would run, Bloomberg said he will not. He said he asked the New York City voters who elected him in 2009 for another four years, adding that he is "sort of inclined" to fulfill that promise.
And we know what Bloomberg's promises are worth.
Remember when he promised NOT to run for a third term and thought term limits were swell.
Good times!
Of course that was before he realized he couldn't win the White House in '08.
Then suddenly the term limit or the promise thing didn't mean so much.
I say he runs.
He's already moved his money around so he can drop $250+ million on the race.
He sees weakness in Obama and possible craziness from the GOP (Palin? Newt?)
It's not a definite, but Bloomberg is positioned to give it a go.
God, can you imagine Secretary of Education Klein?
Nationwide school closure lists?
The entire state of Arkansas gets put on that list.
Scary stuff.
I was reading the Nov. 1 issue of New York Magazine today ("How Sarah Barracuda Could Become President"). The author, John Heilemann, also thinks that Bloomberg might run and that the Obama camp is scared shitless. He hypothesized that, in a three-way race, Bloombucks could help Palin win.
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