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politics and politicians Title: NYT: Mike Bloomberg commissioned a poll to see how he’d do as an independent against Trump and Hillary Election 2016: The Democrat, the Democrat lite, or the Democrat lite-est? Maybe Bernie Sanders will decide to go fourth-party and give America a real choice. Some political leaders, eyeing the Republican split, are sensing opportunity. Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire media executive and former New York mayor, was intrigued enough by the prospect of Mr. Trump’s becoming the Republican standard-bearer that he commissioned a poll last month testing how he would fare against Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, according to two sources close to Mr. Bloomberg. But he has often very publicly flirted with a run, savored the attention, then announced that he would not pursue the candidacy. Nothing would capture the zeitgeist of working-class rage and alienation this year like a soft-spoken Wall Street tycoon worth $40 billion jumping into the race to cleanse America of its guns and Big Gulps. Forget about it, says David Graham at the Atlantic. Mike Bloomberg’s a vainglorious, media-friendly rich guy who relishes the attention he gets from flirting with running for president, but he’ll never pull the trigger — which was exactly what people like me said about Trump the day before he announced last summer. Graham makes a fair point that if Bloomberg’s poll showed him doing well it would have been leaked by now, but let’s not set the bar too high this early. Hillary and Trump were two of the most famous people in America even before they jumped into the race. Bloomberg would spend big bucks introducing himself to the public to raise his profile. Also, I doubt you can get an accurate sense right now of how likely voters from each party would be to back an independent, before any primary votes have been cast. Ask a Rubio or Christie fan today if they’d back Cruz or Trump over Hillary and I bet most would say yes; ask them two months from now, after Cruz or Trump has battered their guy into submission with nasty attacks, and maybe they’ll think otherwise. It’s hard to see Bloomberg picking up disgruntled Democrats who prefer far-left Bernie Sanders to Hillary but it’s easy to see him picking up votes from moderate Republicans who loath Trump (and Cruz?) as too reactionary. If he ran, it’d be a pure “destroy Trump” mission, I think. The question is this: Is that enough reason for him to do it? Bloomberg’s said no in the past, that there’s no point undertaking an effort this enormous if you have no real chance of winning. But who knows? He’s 73 now and isn’t going to hold another office. Even a billion-dollar self-funded campaign would barely dent his personal fortune. Someone’s going to run as a centrist third-party alternative if we end up with Trump and Clinton, in which case why should Bloomy pass and let Jon Huntsman or whoever gain the glory of being the media’s designated “sensible” middle-ground candidate in the race? The trick for establishment Republicans in recruiting an independent challenger to Trump in the general election is that any pol with a future in the Republican Party wouldn’t dare take on the responsibility, knowing that GOP voters would blame him for enabling Hillary’s eventual victory. None of that is a problem for Bloomberg. He could style his candidacy as a spot for “solutions-oriented” people who are “serious about compromise” to park their votes; he’d get a ton of press out of it, a spot onstage at the debates next fall, a megaphone for his gun nonsense, and probably a few high-profile endorsements from Trump-hating establishment GOPers. He could even frame his run as the beginning of what he hopes will be a durable third-party which he’ll fund in the years ahead. He really has nothing to lose. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
With 4 socialists in the race there would be a bidding war on freebies. A Bern Phone & Chevy Volt + a Masters in Basket Weaving vs a Bloomie Big Gulp & Rape Whistle + Playboy Penthouse suite. Once the smoke clears, it could be President Gary Johnson?
I'd put it in the "Just When You Thought 2016 Can't Get Any Worse" category of news. Bloomy may flirt with it but he would have already entered. And Bloomy entering would likely doom the Dems who Bloomy sees as his only viable vehicle to stop Big Gun and Big Gulp.
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