Jack Uldrich, the chair of the Minnesota Independence Party, wants Mayor Bloomberg to “give serious consideration” to a White House run, reports the Daily News today. Okay, great. But it’s not just some dude in Minnesota who’s pushing the idea, it’s also … Mayor Bloomberg! Although officially, publicly, necessarily Bloomberg claims he won’t run for president at least until the 2100s, and his spokesman says that “[t]he only thing the mayor is focused on is being mayor,” Politico’s John Harris is hearing differently.
On yesterday’s Chris Matthews Show, Harris said to “expect a big drumbeat” for a Bloomberg independent presidential run in 2012, one driven by Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg’s newish deputy mayor for communications. Will Bloomberg eventually become convinced that a “short, Jewish, divorced billionaire” does, in fact, have a shot at the White House? Will he conclude that a long-shot presidential campaign is the best way to spend a billion dollars or so? Will Obama be weak enough, and the Republican nominee conservative enough, to create an opening for an independent centrist? Prepare to speculate about these questions and more from now until Mayor Bloomberg finally makes a decision at the latest possible moment!
Bloomberg in ‘12? Minnesota Independence Party wants Mike to seriously consider running for prez [NYDN]
The Chris Matthews Show via [Daily Politics/NYDN]
