As long as he has his billions and weighs in on national issues, stories about Mayor Bloomberg running for president in 2012 will never die. There's a Draft Bloomberg movement afoot and he was in Florida to rally support for redistricting. The Daily News' Adam Lisberg, who wrote about the mayor's 2012 aspirations in April, takes up the topic again today: "Mayor Bloomberg is ready to lead a national march to the middle. He's just waiting to see if anyone will follow."
Listing how Bloomberg has weighed in on big issues—"He has attacked teachers' unions on NBC, but also defended the rights of Muslims on CBS. He wants to expand gay rights and cut public workers' pensions. He is flying around the country endorsing Republicans and Democrats alike"—Lisberg notes that Bloomberg's national stance seems to "[dovetail] nicely, though, with what pollsters say is a growing disgust in America with the two-party system - and a hunger for solutions instead of gridlock."
Democratic pollster Mark Penn says, "There's a marketplace for new movements, and not just movements of the right and left but for the center," while Republican strategist Mark McKinnon says, "The Tea Party is just the tip of the iceberg. There is a silent majority of Americans starving for another alternative. Mike Bloomberg is the prototype of the kind of leader that could represent a third-party movement."
Bloomberg said he's not interested in the job, though admits, "I do have experience and a voice, a platform. I have the experience to talk about some things - job creation, for example. I have spoken out on innovation and a lot of other things, pension costs. I've got business all over the world. I have some international experience." Sure, he's not interested—for now. But the real question is whether America is ready for a leader who supports the mosque two blocks from Ground Zero.
