Run Mike, Run!

From The Washington Post:

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg abruptly left the Republican Party yesterday, declaring himself free of a "rigid adherence" to ideology and stoking speculation that he will use his multibillion-dollar fortune to mount an independent bid for the White House.

I heard some lamenting on talk radio yesterday about how a Bloomberg run as an independent could hurt Republican chances in 2008.

NO!

The harm will be to Hillary. One, Bloomberg is a moonbat liberal. His temporary flirtation with the Republican Party was only to avoid the crowded Democrat primary field in the Mayor's election and to get popular outgoing Mayor Rudy's endorsement.

Look at what Bloomberg is making his signature issue. Gun Control! Who is that going to appeal to? Bill Clinton and his wife hate guns (or to be more precise gun owners) as much as any other left-liberals. However Bill is smart enough to realize that gun control is a losing issue outside of some blue states that are already going to vote against the Republicans. So there is no upside to taking a firm pro-gun control stand for his surrogate (Hillary) in this race.

Bloomberg's entry messes up that calculation. He threatens to siphon off some of the campaign contributions, endorsements of gun control groups and ultimately votes of the fanatical gun-haters. This will force Hillary to be more openly anti-gun and endanger her standing with a good many rural Democrats.

Two, Hillary also has a problem with the fringe of her party. Her vote in favor of the Iraq war back when it was massively popular is coming back to haunt her and her personality will not allow her to simply say that she was mistaken, apologize and move on. This infuriates the nutroots anti-war community (this is what drove Cindy Sheehan out of the Democrat Party) to no end and they are looking for a way to punish her. Support for Bloomberg could very well be that opportunity.

Add to this the fact that Bloomberg is a billionaire who will be able to outspend the Republican and Democrat competition combined without needing to resort to matching funds. Who do you think Bloomberg will appeal to in his advertisements? Conservatives who he already knows are beyond his reach or liberals who already agree with him - and Hillary - on most important issues?

And who will he attack in his campaign ads? The Republican whose core constituents are already lost to him or Hillary whose core constituents are also his core constituents? Having Bloomberg in the race as an independent accomplishes exactly the same thing as having Rudy as the Republican nominee. It puts blue states into play that would otherwise be safe for Hillary; forcing her to spend time and money keeping them in her pocket.

This also reduces some of the support that Giuliani is receiving from the "win at any cost" Republicans. With someone running to Hillary's left to draw away some of the moonbat votes the timid wing of the Republican Party may be a bit more willing to trust a real conservative as the nominee.

I don't know if Bloomberg can draw away enough votes from Hillary to cancel out the surge of whitetrash women who want government to be both husband to them and daddy to their bastard children (women who have never voted before and will never vote again) but it just might.