Posted on 07/11/2006 11:48:13 AM PDT by seanmerc
President Bloomberg? Yes, He Can Win Dick Morris Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Dick Morris: Bloomberg Can Win 2008 Race
If Mike Bloomberg runs for president as an independent, he can win. Yes, not just hurt Hillary Clinton or the Republicans, but actually win the White House.
Obviously, he has his bank account in his favor. Like Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, he wouldn't have to convince skeptical donors that a third-party candidate could succeed for the first time in American history. He can cut short the conversation by just writing a mega check.
But he can succeed where Perot failed, because he knows how to handle himself in the public spotlight.
Bloomberg's years as mayor have fully equipped him to handle the national press corps. He's been on stage 24/7 for his entire term in office and through two campaigns. That education makes it unlikely that he will implode with paranoia or be rattled by the antics of the party national committees, as Perot was.
The mayor has played in the biggest of leagues in front of the toughest of press and media - not to mention the most wary of electorates - and has come out in great shape. It is no mean feat to survive as a Republican mayor in a liberal, Democratic city. And Rudy was no easy act to follow.
By contrast, service as a senator or governor - particularly of a small state - doesn't prepare a candidate adequately for the national stage.
In the Senate, the media is largely absent except on those very rare occasions when great legislation hangs in the balance. A senator can attract attention when and where he chooses by making a statement or holding a media event, but unwanted, unsolicited attention - of the sort that drives presidential candidates crazy - is quite rare.
A governor usually doesn't face the intense media focus that a mayor or a presidential candidate must handle. His life is much more quiescent and, if he chooses, he can be nearly invisible except when the legislature is in session.
Also unlike Perot (whose impact was to make it impossible for the first President Bush to be re-elected), Bloomberg would draw equally from each of the two main parties.
The mayor's strong anti-terror credentials and practical experience at keeping New York City safe from attack would be vastly reassuring to "security mom" voters. He has kept New York safe and even improved on Guiliani's extraordinarily low crime statistics. He has shown himself able to resist pressures for spending and taxes while keeping his budget balanced - and he's a strong advocate of charter schools and educational standards. All good Republican positions.
Democrats, meanwhile, would find his pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights, pro-affirmative action positions very attractive. His pro-city focus could attract large Democratic support, and he'd probably bring into his column the bluest of blue states - New York.
Not that Bloomberg is the only one who can win as an independent in 2008. If Hillary gets the Democratic nomination and some right-winger like Virginia Sen. George Allen defeats John McCain or Rudy Giuliani for the GOP nod, the way will be wide open for a strong independent candidate.
Either McCain or Giuliani could run and win as an independent. Either one could raise the money. Giuliani, released from the deadly confines of a Republican primary, would find his liberal social views on abortion, guns, and gays to be an asset, not a fatal flaw. McCain's legendary independence on issues like tobacco regulation, tough corporate governance, campaign-finance reform, global warming, torture of terror suspects and immigration would no longer be seen as straying from GOP orthodoxy once he left the Republican primaries, but would become the basis for a very attractive campaign platform.
The fact is that any of these three men could win as an independent. Both parties seem hell-bent on nominating extremely vulnerable candidates who cater to their ideological peculiarities more than to the broad middle of the American electorate. As a result, the time is riper for victory by a third-party candidate than it has ever been in our nation's history.
Morris is on crack, Bloomberg has NO charisma.. :\
I have not heard him predict anything close to right in over 6 years. Who still pays this guy? O'Reilly doesn't even have him on much anymore.
Dick: didn't you just publish a book a few months ago calling Condi Rice the next president?
.....just thinking the same thing myself. He's just lost the last shred of credibility he might have had.
Morris works for Hillary. He would absolutely love to see Bloomberg run against her just because he is so weak.
I consider myself to be a moderate to conservative GOP'er and I can assure you that I wouldn't vote for Mike Bloomberg.
Well, I hope we haven't come to the point where somebody can buy himself the presidency.
Especially Bloomberg.
Bloomberg couldn't beat Rudy. :\
Sure, Bloomberg could win, if he ran on the Democrat's ticket.
Admin Mod Alert!
Redundancy?
<];^)~
Morris fell off the wagon.
Morris has a long record of choosing the wrong winner in politics, so he's decided to say stuff like this that cannot be disproven. There is no downside for saying that Pinnoccio can be elected President because he's not going to run.
Hey Morris, thanks a pantsload for realizing this now instead of back in 1992. You could have saved us from an unprepared small state governor.
JUST SAY NO TO BLOOMBERG!
Israel will never trust the UN and the Palis will use Nobel Prize seeking POTUS' (poti?) to get from Israel what they can. This works because there has never been a Jewish guy in the WH. Were there to be then any semblance of even pretend neutrality would go up in atomic smoke.
Dang it! I meant to ping you to #18!
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