A Spoiler Passes the Torch

David Weigel | June 20, 2007

Last night New York Mayor (and noted ubermensch) Michael Bloomberg skunked his GOP registration card and became an independent, presumably setting up a 2008 run for president. As luck would have it I had talked with 1996/2000/2004 Green Party/independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader a few hours earlier. Here's Nader speculating on a Bloomberg run.

Some notes:

- As I've written before, I don't actually think spending big money on elections is a bad thing. I'm just asking Nader why, since he thinks that way, a Bloomberg run would be such a good thing.

- My $500 million estimate of Bloomberg's 2008 prez campaign budget is based on the number Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey has tossed around. Anonymous allies have said it could be $1 billion. Mark Green, the former NYC Public Advocate and 2001 Bloomberg opponent, told me he thinks Bloomberg would spend $2 billion.

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|6.20.07 @ 8:20AM|#

WTF kind of strange corner of hell did we transport ourselves to where we have a NY Mayor, a pretend NY DA, another NY Mayor, and a NY senator in the same race?

I wonder if Bloomers will give himself a pardon when the Commonwealth of VA brings him up on state charges for his bonehead publicity anti firearm stunts? Shades of me hoping that Bill was serviced by Monica in VA, prior to the supreme court outlawing such prosecutions, so that VA could bring up a sitting president on charges of sodomy. Now THAT would have been more fun, but I'll take Bloomers with a warrant out for him.

|6.20.07 @ 8:46AM|#

Oh boy, the ultimate champion of the nanny state jumps in. The race between Hillary and Bloomy to see who can bring big governement to you living room the fastest will be fun to watch.

|6.20.07 @ 8:48AM|#

Let's just auction off the Presidency to the highest bidder. Maybe the Koch brothers can outbid Bloomie et al.

Episiarch|6.20.07 @ 8:55AM|#

If Bloomberg runs, I will break my non-voting streak and will vote for anybody else. Hey, he fucked NYC in just a few short years--now, for the country!

Plus, I agree with Other Matt--let's see him run with a warrant (Federal, from ATF) out for him for straw purchases.

Eric Dondero|6.20.07 @ 8:59AM|#

This is a sure sign to the Republican Party that the best way to win for 2008 is to nominate Giuliani. Does anyone think Bloomberg will utlimately run if Giuliani is the GOP Nominee?

There's no room for 4 New Yorkers: Hillary, Rudy and Bloomberg (4 if you count likely Libertarian Party Nominee and NYer turned Las Vegas resident Wayne Ally Root).

If Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination, Bloomberg will be in. If it's Giuliani, I seriously doubt Bloomberg will run.

Call this a threat to the GOP if you like. But it's reality. NOMINATE THE ITALIAN GUY OR ELSE!

stephen the goldberger|6.20.07 @ 9:06AM|#

what a suprise, dondero chimes in with some fear mongering

|6.20.07 @ 9:06AM|#

Don't know if this was posted elsewhere, but ...

NEW YORK - Poor residents will be rewarded for good behavior - like $300 for doing well on school tests, $150 for holding a job and $200 for visiting the doctor - under an experimental anti-poverty program that city officials detailed Monday.

|6.20.07 @ 9:10AM|#

Ah, 2008--the Year of the Bibertarian. Which nanny will America choose? Or will they opt for the authoritarian option? Egad.

I'm voting for freedom, myself, but what can I say? I'm not from New York.

|6.20.07 @ 9:22AM|#

"Oh boy, the ultimate champion of the nanny state jumps in. The race between Hillary and Bloomy to see who can bring big governement to you living room the fastest will be fun to watch."
Yeah, no big government types on the GOP side (Iraq war cost: the total financial costs have also risen from the initial Bush Administration estimates of $50 billion to more than $400 billion total, most of it coming from the United States, but at least £4 billion from the United Kingdom.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_War#Human_and_financial_costs
Military spending: http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm

|6.20.07 @ 9:25AM|#

Bloomberg leaves a lot to be desired, but he's certainly no worse than the warmongers in bed with the religious nannies of the GOP or the convictionless Dems, and a serious third party run always gooses the two parties.

|6.20.07 @ 9:32AM|#

Gary Bauer proved once and for all time that Americans do not vote for wee, fey Presidential candidates. Dennis Kucinich and Bloomberg have chosen to deny this incontrovertible fact.

GreenGenes|6.20.07 @ 9:33AM|#

While not the same as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party does support Decentralization. To Greens, that's control by the public, not corporation nor insular gov't institutions.

See this speech by Cynthia McKinney who has held her ground and attempted to move forward on 9/11, civil rights, voting rights, fought stolen elections, Cointelpro depite attacks by "party leadership." The private individual can be free when the above repressive institutions are rebuked. Cynthia McKinney has the track record to prove her desire and ability to do so.

Episiarch|6.20.07 @ 9:37AM|#

...Cynthia McKinney...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

|6.20.07 @ 9:38AM|#

Yes the Republicans in office like the big government war state, but that doesn't actually affect you in your daily life unless you are seving in the armed forces.

Whereas, Bloomberg has gone out of his way to insert his desired lifestyle into everyones lives here in NYC and is damn proud of it.

Jim Nance, in a ridiculously r|6.20.07 @ 9:46AM|#

de stijl is the clubhouse leader, but there are still plenty of players left out on the thread...

KipEsquire|6.20.07 @ 9:50AM|#

From the perspective of anyone outside the five boroughs (and especially the red state rednecks -- who can't even bring themselves to vote for a Mormon), what exactly is Bloomberg other than a "Jewish Giuliani"?

Bhh|6.20.07 @ 9:51AM|#

"actually affect you in your daily life"

Except for the taxes, ultimately extracted by the point of a gun. Then there's the domestic spying, the expansion of unreviewable executive power, torture, disappearing people, etc. The whole idea that Magna Carta = old news. Which will be impossible to eliminate from our betters of either political party.

I had to write a check to the US for $3000 this year. I wondered how long it would last in Iraq.

The money would have been used more productively if I took 30 $100 bills, put them in a neat stack, set it on fire, and then took a dump on it to put the fire out.

|6.20.07 @ 9:55AM|#

I bet this election ends up continuing the long tradition of NYC mayors losing the presidential election. Seriously, Bloomberg?

|6.20.07 @ 9:57AM|#

Note, I'll be moving to NYC soon, and I might end up voting for Bloomberg if he runs just to get rid of him.

|6.20.07 @ 9:58AM|#

Can there be a better way to flush millions of dollars than to enter this race as an Independent? Burning money at least gets you some heat.

|6.20.07 @ 9:59AM|#

if I took 30 $100 bills, put them in a neat stack, set it on fire, and then took a dump on it

You could make it back in no time by selling the video.

|6.20.07 @ 10:04AM|#

"what exactly is Bloomberg other than a "Jewish Giuliani"?"

At least Giuliani cleaned up the city and turned it around - much to the dismay of the welfare pimps, race huslters, and unionists - I might add. All Bloomy had to do was not screw it up.

|6.20.07 @ 10:06AM|#

I had to write a check to the US for $3000 this year. I wondered how long it would last in Iraq.

If that's the check, ok, but if that's the total bill, what the hell you doing to get off so cheap? Surely that's got to be before social security and medicare.

|6.20.07 @ 10:08AM|#

Cynthia McKinney has the track record to prove her desire and ability to do so.

And a mean jab to back it up. Be afraid, Epi, be very afraid....

|6.20.07 @ 10:23AM|#

Domestic spying compared to:

Bloomberg's NYPD who have:

Gone to other states making strawman gun purchases (setting up innocent business) and then sued the businesses.

Gone to Penn. to stake out fireworks shops looking for NY licence plates and then seized the cars of hundreds of vehicles coming back to NY.

Gone to NJ to stake out shopping malls, again, to look for NY plates and then sent letters demanding the NYC residents pay the sales taxes on their purchases.

Raised the taxes on cigarettes to black market prices, then made it illegal to order cigarettes from other states, and then confiscated the records from out of state cigarette dealers looking for NYers who had purcahsed cigarettes on line and then had the NYC Finance department send them tax demand letters.

Gee with no national power he already has the NYPD working a little out of its juristdiction.

Then there's the trans fat deal based on "no" science that just says, I'm f***ing with you because I can.

How about these three rules for the next presidential election: no more Bushes, Clintons or people who know whats good for you that doesn't include eliminating taxes.

thoreau|6.20.07 @ 10:24AM|#

Since all I really want is for the drama of the race to be focused on a place where I don't live, I hope it's Giuliani vs. Clinton vs. Bloomberg. I pity the fools who live in media markets that get NY TV ads.

That would be even more fun than a scenario that seemed sort of plausible at one point: VA Senator John Warner vs. former VA Governor Mark Warner. Warner vs. Warner would have had the added entertainment value of confused voters. "I punched my chad for Warner. The one from Virginia. What?"

Bhh|6.20.07 @ 10:26AM|#

|6.20.07 @ 10:27AM|#

"If Fred Thompson or Mitt Romney wins the GOP nomination, Bloomberg will be in."

From what I've read, if Bloomberg runs, the Republican candidate, whoever it is will win because Bloomberg will take votes away from the Democrat because of his socially liberal views and green views, especially if the candidate is Hillary as alot of Democrats would like an alternative to her.

Alan Augustson|6.20.07 @ 10:34AM|#

Cynthia McKinney has the track record to prove her desire and ability to do so.

But she hasn't declared herself a Green, or a Presidential candidate.

And will she be able to refuse PAC and lobby money (a condition of running as a Green), if she's still in hock for her Congressional campaign?

|6.20.07 @ 10:44AM|#

Don't ask me how the numbers add up. I just do what the accountant says to do. It prevents "lone weirdo holed up surrounded by federal agents" scenarios which might occur if I did my own taxes. The fire/dump thing was my idea though.

Well, I'm guessing that's the check you stroked at the end of it all, on top of withholding, not the 1040 line 63 number. I had to stroke a check for about $2K, but the total number was much, much higher...dammit.

"Then there's the trans fat deal based on "no" science that just says"

How about the ban on aluminum baseball bats? I am not sure if Bloomy publicly supported this nonsense but you know in his heart he wanted to.

Aslo, Bloomy is big Kelo fan. He love him some eminent domain.

"Yes the Republicans in office like the big government war state, but that doesn't actually affect you in your daily life unless you are seving in the armed forces."

Yes it does in terms of higher taxes and increased threats of terrorism.

|6.20.07 @ 10:46AM|#

"Cynthia McKinney has the track record to prove her desire and ability to do so."

She can't run, she's not from New York.

|6.20.07 @ 10:50AM|#

"That would be even more fun than a scenario that seemed sort of plausible at one point: VA Senator John Warner vs. former VA Governor Mark Warner. Warner vs. Warner would have had the added entertainment value of confused voters. "I punched my chad for Warner. The one from Virginia. What?"

Hey, Thoreau, you may already know this but they did run against each other, before Mark became governor. Mark's campaign slogan was "Mark, not John." I kid you not.

|6.20.07 @ 10:54AM|#

joe and I had a thread of agreement on the desirability of an all-Warner race. Dang it.

|6.20.07 @ 10:56AM|#

"While not the same as the Libertarian Party, the Green Party does support Decentralization. To Greens, that's control by the public, not corporation nor insular gov't institutions."

Libertarians don't believe in control by the corporations. We are opposed to corporations receiving special privileges as they do by the Republicans and Democrats. Corporate people looking for special handouts from the government would not vote Libertarian or for Ron Paul.

"Yes the Republicans in office like the big government war state, but that doesn't actually affect you in your daily life unless you are seving in the armed forces."
Several other commentators have shot up Art's thesis already, but I'll add that he neglected to notice the second clause of my line: religious right nannies. They effect (or would like to) the average persons life more than the Dems do or would, unless the average person spends more time creating unsafe workplaces for their employees than they do having sex, gambling (maybe single issue voter can be coaxed into arguing that it was really the Dems that banned internet gambling?), looking at porn or getting f*^ked up.

VM|6.20.07 @ 11:02AM|#

What Doktor T. said.

(although the Clinton vs Obama will be interesting hier in Chicagoland: Gov Chicagovich = Clinton camp. Rep Emanuel(D,IL 5), ditto. Czar Daley = Obama Camp.)

cheers!

|6.20.07 @ 11:18AM|#

Hillary vs. Rudy vs. Mayor Mike?

As much as I'd like the rest of the country to share in the experience of living under the boot of NYC politicians as we Upstaters do, this strikes me as the best reason yet for suicide.

On a previous thread, I said that if it came down to Rudy vs. Hillary I'd have to eat broken glass. If it comes down to these three, I think I'm gonna have to take that broken glass intravenously.

|6.20.07 @ 11:25AM|#

This excites me greatly. Being from New York, I can only imagine the circus surrounding a Hillary/Rudy/Bloomy race. Too bad that asshat Pataki was never a factor or this would be even sweeter. Once I think about the prospects of one of them winning, I get tremendously depressed. But wow! What a way for the country to go down in flames, eh? All the freaks are crawling out of the woodwork for this one!

|6.20.07 @ 11:29AM|#

Reinmoose,

Maybe it's a reaction to having a president from the southern half of the country for all but two years since 1963:

Bush - TX
Clinton - AR
Bush - TX
Reagan - southern CA
Carter - GA
Ford - MI
Nixon - southern CA
Johnson - TX

|6.20.07 @ 11:32AM|#

crimethink -
you confuse my masochistic excitement for actual excitement about any of the candidates. Can you just imagine the 3 of them at a debate! Oh Jeebus! How AWESOME would that be! I imagine it would sound something like this:
"Terrorists,terrorists,terrorists,terrorists,terrorists,terrorists,terrorsits,terrorists"

|6.20.07 @ 11:34AM|#

Of course, Lyndon Johnson was the first southern president since Andrew Johnson left office nearly a century earlier, so I guess these things go in cycles.

|6.20.07 @ 11:41AM|#

Reinmoose,

My fear is that the debates would also include arguments about internal NYC problems, like the best way to get from JFK to LaGuardia during rush hour, or whether it's worth it to pay someone to move your car to the other side of the street at night.

Basically, it would be like an episode of Seinfeld with Hillary playing Elaine, Rudy playing George, and Bloomberg playing Kramer. Except for the fact that it would be more sad than funny (though there were a few Seinfelds that were like that).

|6.20.07 @ 11:44AM|#

Wolf Blitzer: "What's the deal with Social Security..."

|6.20.07 @ 11:59AM|#

They could have a pinkie finger bet on who could go the longest without proposing Nanny State legislation.

|6.20.07 @ 12:00PM|#

I'm out!

|6.20.07 @ 12:23PM|#

Hillary vs. Rudy vs. Mayor Mike?

From a fundie perspective, that's like Satan vs. Satanic cult vs. Jesus assassin.

Soprano's are done, so I might have to root for this show.

|6.20.07 @ 12:29PM|#

One thing that people forget when it comes to both Bloomberg and Rudy is that you can't really go by their policies as mayor of NYC when predicting how they'd act as President.

Some "nanny" laws make sense when you're talking about millions of people crammed into a small island but would not make sense on a national level.

ed|6.20.07 @ 12:56PM|#

I just want it to be over already.
Make it stop.

|6.20.07 @ 12:59PM|#

"Yes it does in terms of higher taxes and increased threats of terrorism."

And you think they will give you back that money.

"Some "nanny" laws make sense when you're talking about millions of people crammed into a small island but would not make sense on a national level."

Everything Dr. Bloomberg has done, based on the money he has given to non profit organizations, indicates he truly believes these should be national policies.
And no, we neither needed them nor asked for them on this crammed little island to survive.

Perhaps we should add the three stadiums he is building at taxpayer expense and yes he is a central planner that loves Kelo.

|6.20.07 @ 1:19PM|#

If Bloomie gets in, he gets in to syphon votes. He knows he has no chance. But a "moderate, independent-minded" New York mayor may take votes away from the Democrat, and he doesn't threaten to steal too many Repub votes --that may give Mitt or Fred the ability to win the presidency with 35% of the vote. The Republicans are creaming their pants thinking about Bloomie stepping in.

|6.20.07 @ 1:43PM|#

A 9/11 divided against itself, CANNOT stand!

|6.20.07 @ 3:43PM|#

This is great! He'll be a John Anderson for the XXIth Century!

|6.20.07 @ 3:54PM|#

"If Bloomie gets in, he gets in to syphon votes. He knows he has no chance."

That brings up the question, why is he running, if he does run?

|6.20.07 @ 4:44PM|#

That would be even more fun than a scenario that seemed sort of plausible at one point: VA Senator John Warner vs. former VA Governor Mark Warner.

I thought we would have an all-VA Presidential race at one point (George Allen vs. Mark Warner), but Allen sunk himself and Warner took himself out. Too bad, it would sure as hell beat an all NY race--at least both of them were pro-gun rights.

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