Run Mike Run!

From The New York Times:

Buoyed by the still unsettled field, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is growing increasingly enchanted with the idea of an independent presidential bid, and his aides are aggressively laying the groundwork for him to run.

On Sunday, the mayor will join Democratic and Republican elder statesmen at the University of Oklahoma in what the conveners are billing as an effort to pressure the major party candidates to renounce partisan gridlock.

Former Senator David L. Boren of Oklahoma, who organized the session with former Senator Sam Nunn, a Democrat of Georgia, suggested in an interview that if the prospective major party nominees failed within two months to formally embrace bipartisanship and address the fundamental challenges facing the nation, “I would be among those who would urge Mr. Bloomberg to very seriously consider running for president as an independent.”

Next week’s meeting, reported on Sunday in The Washington Post, comes as the mayor’s advisers have been quietly canvassing potential campaign consultants about their availability in the coming months.

And Mr. Bloomberg himself has become more candid in conversations with friends and associates about his interest in running, according to participants in those talks. Despite public denials, the mayor has privately suggested scenarios in which he might be a viable candidate: for instance, if the opposing major party candidates are poles apart, like Mike Huckabee, a Republican, versus Barack Obama or John Edwards as the Democratic nominee.

A final decision by Mr. Bloomberg about whether to run is unlikely before February. Still, he and his closest advisers are positioning themselves so that if the mayor declares his candidacy, a turnkey campaign infrastructure will virtually be in place.

Bloomberg aides have studied the process for starting independent campaigns, which formally begins March 5, when third-party candidates can begin circulating nominating petitions in Texas. If Democrats and Republicans have settled on their presumptive nominees at that point, Mr. Bloomberg will have to decide whether he believes those candidates are vulnerable to a challenge from a pragmatic, progressive centrist, which is how he would promote himself.

The filing deadline for the petitions, which must be signed by approximately 74,000 Texas voters who did not participate in the state’s Democratic or Republican primaries, is May 12.

Among the other participants invited to the session next Sunday and Monday is Senator Chuck Hagel, a Nebraska Republican, who has said he would consider being Mr. Bloomberg’s running mate on an independent ticket.

Please run Mikey. An independent moonbat to siphon votes away from the Democrat moonbat will make Fred's election all that much more certain.

The other liberal named Mike

From the Wall Street Journal:

As Democratic and Republican presidential hopefuls stumped in Iowa and New Hampshire Monday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was in China talking about entrepreneurship. The setting was different, but the goal may have been the same.

Those close to Mr. Bloomberg said the 65-year-old billionaire is considering a White House bid, despite his repeated denials. Moreover, friends and advisers said, developments make a candidacy more conceivable.

Shifts atop the polls for both parties in early-voting states suggest uncertainty among some voters about the current crop of candidates, while an increasingly nasty campaign could badly bruise whomever comes out on top, Mr. Bloomberg's supporters said. Gridlock in Congress could open the door for Mr. Bloomberg's nonpartisan message. At the same time, national polls show voters worrying more about the economy and less about Iraq -- a trend that plays to Mr. Bloomberg's strengths.

By all accounts, Mr. Bloomberg remains a long-shot. He is an independent -- a longtime Democrat, he ran for mayor as a Republican and then left that party in June -- and no third-party candidate has ever won the presidency. He often jokes about the electoral chances of a 5-foot-7-inch Jewish divorcé. His record of raising taxes, banning smoking in bars and clamping down on guns could hurt him among libertarian Republicans and independents who are among his likely supporters.

And Mr. Bloomberg doesn't want to be a spoiler or a protest candidate, friends said. "I think he likes the challenge," said Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor who has served as an adviser to Mr. Bloomberg. "But he'll only run if he can win."

He is an ultra-left liberal, which means he's crazy, so he just might think he has a shot. I hope he does run as a third party candidate because he will draw votes away from the Democrat.

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.

Good riddance!

(CBS) NEW YORK CBS 2 HD has learned New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leaving the Republican party and has announced he is currently unaffiliated with a political party.

The move will clearly begin advancing rumors that the mayor is gearing towards a presidential run, which he has denied in the past.

In a statement, however, the 65-year-old billionaire mayor indicated this doesn't change his plans for his political future.

"I have filed papers with the New York City Board of Elections to change my status as a voter and register as unaffiliated with any political party. Although my plans for the future haven’t changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our City."

On Tuesday, Bloomberg was in California attending a conference at the University of Southern California along with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The pair appeared on this week's cover of Time magazine.

The California trip is part of a recent series of out-of-state trips, which has added to the speculation that he may run. On Monday, he visited the Google Inc. campus in Mountain View, Calif., a trip that four other announced presidential candidates have made.

He was also in Los Angeles on Monday where he bashed partisan politics in Washington, saying it was putting "our future in jeopardy." He hinted at the problem with party affiliation when said the nation's "wrong-headed course" if politicians could work together across party lines.

In his statement Tuesday, Bloomberg went on to discuss his progress in leading New York City.

Excellent! One less rotten RINO lumbering around knocking stuff off the shelves and leaving big steaming piles of dung on the carpet.