Given the discussion of whether former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg is thinking of entering the 2016 race as an independent, I find myself asking a weird question: Did anyone ask him?
Deep down, you can tell me that Bloomberg Nation is a complete and total grassroots organization, but I'm not really feeling it. We have an election cycle where on the Right, the establishment has totally lost control of who will be the Republican nominee (I saw David Brooks say "It's gonna be Rubio" like a man trying to convince himself on MTP) and where long-time politician on the Left, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, are calling each other "establishment" like that's brand new. (Psst--you both kind of are! Is that so wrong?)
Even the "can't we all just get along" centrists of "No Labels", as much as it feels like Bloomberg's "brand", has dubbed Donald Trump a "problem solver." So while some folks might oppose the idea of a Bloomberg run on the grounds that he'll be a spoiler for one side or the other by "robbing" centrist votes, I'm just wondering why he thinks the support is really there at all. His run isn't going to fix the partisan divide.
He'll probably just make both sides really, really annoyed. (Also, we've heard this before.)
2 comments:
He appeals strictly to those inside the media bubble.
Felicitations, Vixen.
It is curious. I have nothing but speculation, but I have a few of them.
1. He's just another extremely rich deluded guy who lives in a bubble.
2. He wants to create a firewall in case Hillary is indicted or the combination of being an enabler and legal problems swirl to such an extent that she has to withdraw from the race. Then there would be Bloomberg as an option to an out and out socialist who is not even a Democrat – assuming he would switch back to the Democratic Party.
3. Normally NYC goes for the Democratic candidate while upstate New York is more conservative. This time, however, a died-in-the-wool New Yorker is running on the Republican side and has been a stalwart defender of New York. This could suggest that a lot of New Yorkers will switch parties in order to vote for Trump. Perhaps Bloomberg sees a run as a way to siphon votes away from right-leaning New Yorkers and deprive Trump of the votes he might otherwise get.
Probably he's just an enormously rich guy whose affluence allows him to scratch every itch, but in today's world you never really know.
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