Should Bloomberg make a bid for the White House?

MPR News Staff Jan 23, 2016
10

“Michael R. Bloomberg has instructed advisers to draw up plans for a potential independent campaign in this year’s presidential race. His advisers and associates said he was galled by Donald J. Trump’s dominance of the Republican field, and troubled by Hillary Clinton’s stumbles and the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on the Democratic side,” reports the New York Times.

Mr. Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York City, has in the past contemplated running for the White House on a third-party ticket, but always concluded he could not win. A confluence of unlikely events in the 2016 election, however, has given new impetus to his presidential aspirations.

Today’s Question: Should Bloomberg make a bid for the White House?

  • Geezer44

    Just what America needs is ANOTHER presidential candidate in the race!! No, he should NOT enter, as it is way too late to start now, and would become the target of everybody in both parties. He’s also way too dictatorial, judging from when he was mayor of New York.

  • MrE85

    No, the field has been set, for good or bad. It will be interesting to see where America goes from here.

  • Gary F

    Yes! Yes! Yes!

    Hillary might be wearing an orange prison suit instead of an orange pantsuit by November, and heck, Bernie may not be alive by November.

    Oh, wait a minute, Bloomberg is old and white too.

  • Pearly

    youbetcha

  • Gary F

    Just think if he did become President. If you think Obama fueled a frenzy of gun and ammunition sales, just think of Bloomberg! And! Besides the gun/ammo frenzy, think of all the sugared sodas that would be hoarded in people’s basements! I don’t drink that much pop, but I’d have to consider drinking it just because. If he starts getting traction, start buying CocaCola and Pepsi stock!

  • PaulJ

    Have him agree now to serve in Hillary’s cabinet.

    • Gary F

      Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, Explosives and Sugary Soda.

      I can just see officers in the blue windbreaker jackets doing raids on private citizens coming for the guns and soda.

  • John Dilligaf

    Sure – there aren’t enough narcissistic billionaires in the race yet.

    If the federal government was reduced to the size it was designed to be, and the executive branch didn’t expand its power with each occupant, the presidential race and the country as a whole would be so much better for it, and all these power-hungry cronyists might just leave us alone.

  • whitedoggie44

    The U.S political system is not kind to third party political candidates. The last one to take the white house was Abraham Lincoln in 1860 as the nominee of the antislavery Republicans.
    I would believe if the democrats nominate avowed socialist/communist Bernie Sanders, or the Republicans nominate crazy Donald Trump, a Bloomberg candidacy might attract disaffected voters in both parties.
    Though he is a social liberal he is a centrist on economic policy, tough on crime and as in New York City, would flight the incompetent teachers unions on a national level.
    Therefore, why not spend some of his billions?

  • Gary F

    Rut Row, Hillary having coughing fits and problem with her meds, Bloomberg now swinging two bats on the on deck circle.