New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a "government of national unity" to end the gridlock in Washington.Conveners of the meeting include former senators Sam Nunn (Ga.), Charles S. Robb (Va.) and David L. Boren (Okla.), and former presidential candidate Gary Hart, as well as Sen. Chuch Hagel (Neb.), former GOP chairman Bill Brock, former senator John Danforth (Mo.) and former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman.
Who would Bloomberg hurt the most? Our guess is McCain or Giuliani against either Clinton or Obama. If Huckabee won the nomination we think moderate Republican and most independent voters would opt for anybody the Democrats put up, so Bloomberg could probably count on much of that support.
Unless Huckabee gets the nod, we don't see a Bloomberg run accomplishing much short-term good.
If McCain or Giuliani gets the nomination, Bloomberg would only siphon moderate and independent votes, and hand a victory to the Democrats. In that case, Evangelical conservatives would feel vindicated in believing that the future of the GOP is theirs. It would effectually close the book on moderate Republicans representing their party in presidential elections.
A vindicated religious right would be bad news for the GOP. Indeed, the ascendency of extremism in either party would be bad for all Americans.
For background, it's worth knowing that Broder was writing about a possible Bloomberg/Hagel ticket back in August. His speculations are looking better and better...
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