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June 20, 2007
If only!
I would vote for Mike Bloomberg if he ran for President and I thought he had a snowball's chance in Fallujah of winning. I think the federal government is in desperate need of a managerial type who will root out the flunkies, mission-from-Godders and industry hacks that the agencies have been stuffed with over the last six and a half years. As many people have pointed out, when people who don't believe in government are put in charge of one, they tend to do a bad job of it - it's a self-fullfilling prophecy. A Bloomberg administration would focus on making basic things work.
There won't be a Bloomberg administration. He may be able, after millions and millions of dollars in advertising, to sway some Democratic voters, but when it comes to Republicans, he's toast. Forget about the gun thing and the smoking thing - he's a bad prophet for a party completely enthralled by empty images. Take Rudy Giuliani: he's a huge star in the party because he was in the right place at the right time. Did he save any lives on 9/11? Did his planning for the event help mitigate the damege? Did he warn people about it? Nope. All he did was make TV appearances while the President was jetting from place to place. Most likely, if New York City had a jet for the Mayor, he would have been on it. Hilzoy at Obsidian Wings gets it:
First, a number of the Republican candidates for President are running on their appearance of toughness on national security, not on any actual national security credentials. Giuliani is the most obvious case: as I said when I noted the first of these stories in comments, a guy who pushes Bernard Kerik for Secretary of Homeland Security years after being briefed that Kerik is connected to the mob is really not someone you want to elect in order to keep us safe. He just isn't.When someone is running on an appearance that has no basis in fact, you can expect stories like the one about the Iraq study group, stories that show that given a choice between performing a real service to his country and its security on the one hand, and self-interest on the other, he chooses self-interest.
Mike Bloomberg doesn't talk tough, he just keeps the gears well-oiled. If he runs, he will be a spoiler who hurts Democrats exclusively.
Republicans want to hear about 9/11, not 311.
Posted by rj3 at June 20, 2007 12:27 PM
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