As someone who has blogged for over year that Mike Bloomberg was not a serious candidate for President, I’m happy that the local press has now decided that Mike saying in print the same thing he has said out loud for two years, that he was not going to run, means that he is not going to run.
However now that one farce has ended a new one has started.
We will now be bombarded with endless stories about who Mike will support for President.
Today’s NY Sun starts the new mania by interviewing Bloomberg pollster Doug Schoen, who as part of the PR blitz for his latest book, talked about a bunch of other thing Mike could do to help a Presidential candidate.
http://www.nysun.com/article/71984
"This is Bloomberg saying, 'Look. I'm going to be involved. I'm going to be influential. I may endorse a candidate. I may do an independent expenditure. I may rally my coalition of mayors on behalf of a candidate.' And I see Bloomberg as one of the most important, if not the most important, noncandidate for president in America," he said.
Really?
What good is Mike’s endorsement?
Will he help Obama, Hillary or McCain in New York City?
No!
Four years ago Mike endorsed George Bush, who received less than 25% of the vote in NYC. I don’t see a Bloomberg endorsement being more meaningful now. And anyway, nobody (except perhaps Joe Bruno) thinks Republicans have a serious chance to carry New York State this year.
Maybe Mike can deliver to his Presidential choice those people who were urging him to run. Well, the count of those signing the petition urging Mike to run on much hyped – Draftbloomberg.com website is 11,764 as of 11:30 AM today.
I’m doubtful that they will swing an election when over 100 million will vote.
The coalition of Mayors?
Most of them have already endorsed a candidate already and most are Democrats or Republicans. Does anyone think that Berkeley Mayor Ron Dellums, a Hillary supporter will switch to McCain because Mike Bloomberg wants him to? Or that the Republican Mayor of Yonkers, Phil Amicone will back Obama if he is Bloomberg’s choice.
And then we get to the most absurd idea hyped by Schoen and the other kool aid drinkers – Bloomberg for Vice President.
Part of this nonsense is based on an alleged Washington Post poll that said Mike was favored for VP.
Here’s what the Post actually printed –
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/26/AR2008022603059.html
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is emerging as consensus pick for vice president among both Republicans and Democrats.
Well, not exactly, but, based on a perusal of the nearly 600 entries in our contest to pick a running mate for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and the 2,600 entries to select one for Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), a fair number of Loop Fans speculated that either candidate might pick Bloomberg as his No. 2.
Get that, a fair number of @3,000 political junkies picked Mike. And think about it.
And can someone tell me what would Bloomberg bring to a ticket?
John McCain?
Picking a pro-choice, anti-gun, gay marriage supporting, tax hiker, who quite the Republican Party is just what is needed to get those Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter and the others who think McCain is not conservative on board.
And Clinton or Obama would not be helped by a guy who quit the Democratic Party in 2000, endorsed George W. Bush for re-election, supports the war in Iraq, opposed the economic stimulus package, has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republicans in the last 7 years and comes from a City and State that the Democrats are sure to carry.
MIke's support may be influential with those who think that having a position on regulating trans-fat is more important than having one on the war in Iraq but the rest of us are in no rush to hear who Mike is voting for.