NYT: For 2 Years, Bloomberg Aides Prepared for Bid: Does not want to run as a "spoiler"

[DeepModem Mom]

For 2 Years, Bloomberg Aides Prepared for Bid
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JIM RUTENBERG
Published: June 21, 2007


(Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York visiting a 311 call center after a news conference today.

WASHINGTON, June 20 — The announcement by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York that he was leaving the Republican Party to become an independent was made after nearly two years in which his aides had laid the groundwork for a potential independent run for president.

They collected technical data on the requirements to put Mr. Bloomberg on the ballot in 50 states either as a third party or an independent candidate. Mr. Bloomberg went to Washington for a round of meetings with opinion leaders and traveled the country giving political speeches, including two this week in California....

***

The aides said there was division in his camp about whether he should run for president. Kevin Sheekey, who was the architect behind Mr. Bloomberg’s unlikely mayoral bid in 2001, urged Mr. Bloomberg to run for president over steaks and drinks at a dinner at Dylan Prime to celebrate his re-election in 2005. Others argued that it was an impossible task and a waste of Mr. Bloomberg’s reputation and resources.

Mr. Bloomberg was described as conflicted about a national run, intrigued by the possibility of winning the presidency but telling friends that he would not run unless he was certain that he could win. And he did not want to go down in history as a spoiler who contributed to the defeat of a Democrat like Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, he has told friends....

Even if Mr. Bloomberg in the end does not run, he is now assured of a platform to speak out on national issues and the country’s political climate, a stage that would fortify him as he enters what is normally the lame-duck portion of his term....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/21/us/politics/21bloomberg.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[More Than A Feeling]

1. Now that's interesting.

He specifically cares more about not being a spoiler for Democrats than he does for Republicans.

[zalinda]

2. That's because he's really a dem

He joined the GOP to run for mayor, that's the only reason.

zalinda

[More Than A Feeling]

3. Then why did he do what he did to the protestors at the GOP convention in NY in 2004?

Maybe he felt he had to pursue overkill to "prove" his bona fides to the GOP?

[Superman Returns]

4. look, I don't endorse

the hostile action he took against free speech but he probably didn't come at it from an ideological point of view. Basically, it was only 3 years after 9/11, the most powerful man on Earth was coming to New York City, where it all originally happened. If something went down Bloomberg didn't want blood on his hands for not having the city secure enough. Is that an excuse? I don't know.

[Benhurst]

6. Just because Dick Cheney was coming to New York was no excuse

for what he did to people exorcising their right to free speech.

[Smarmie Doofus]

5. And raise more money for the nat'l GOP in 2004 than any....

... single individual in the United States?