Michael Bloomberg (I) for President?
Michael Bloomberg, mayor of New York City, has announced that he has left the Republican Party and become an independent. Or I guess I should say: Independent (note the capital "I"). This is so he can run as a third-party candidate for President of the United States in 2008. He even plans to pony up his own money, claiming that this makes him beholden to no special interest groups.
Bloomberg has made some savvy but bald-faced political decisions in the past. A lifelong Democrat, Bloomberg realized he'd get farther as a Republican. When vying to replace Rudy Giuliani as mayor of NYC, Bloomberg saw the Democratic primary filling up with candidates. Not to get lost in that pack, he suddenly became Republican in order to secure that party's nomination for mayor. Now that he's firmly ensconced as Hizzoner, he has renounced his party affiliation and gone back to his nature. As an independent, he can run for President of the US without having to go through the primary system (sound familiar?).
A word of warning to those who think he's viable as a voice of moderation between the two warring factions of Americans. He's not. He may be a fiscal conservative but he's socially an uber-liberal. He is a third-party candidate gone wild. If he thinks he's going to woo conservatives, his social positions will be totally unpalatable: he's pro-homosexual rights and pro-abortion on demand.
From the Post Chronicle:
A typical slippery sentence in regard to his view on pregnancy: "Protecting the health of women goes beyond a commitment to choice and the right of women to control their own bodies. It means tackling the complex issues of reproductive health, so that all women, rich or poor, can have access to the latest advances in birth control and can make healthy and informed decisions." By "healthy and informed decisions" Bloomberg means access to killing clinics.
Concerning homosexuality, he plays both sides. Every logical individual knows that when a person does that, he's a no winner when it comes to integrity.
Per AP: "The mayor of the nation's largest city says homosexual couples deserve the same rights in civil unions that heterosexual couples enjoy in marriage, but he will continue to enforce New York state's ban on same-sex 'marriage.'"
The "Subway" series is the annual Yankees/Mets series in baseball, pitting the Bronx Bombers against the Brooklyn-based Mets. Apparently this election will be the perfect storm of New Yorkers: Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY); Rudy Giuliani (R), former mayor of New York; and now Mike Bloomberg (I), self-financed current mayor of New York. But for those who still shudder when they think Ross Perot split the Republican voters, allowing Clinton to ascend to the nation's highest office... don't panic. He's more likely to pull a Ralph Nader. His appeal will be from the left, not the right. If he gets any votes at all, a Bloomberg candidacy is far more likely to split the Democratic ticket than the Republican.