Any one for the middle road?

Any one for the middle road?
By MARIANNE MEANS
SYNDICATED COLUMNIST
January 4, 2008 4:39 p.m. PT

WASHINGTON -- It has been creeping up on us under the political radar, while all the big-time attention is focused on the early electoral contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. But its time may be here. Perhaps!

The latest attempt at setting up an independent, bipartisan effort to inject a centrist philosophy -- and a candidate not of either major party -- into the presidential race surfaces this weekend when Unity08 convenes in Oklahoma. The Iowa caucuses are behind us, but more electoral hurdles lie ahead.

Previous efforts at such a transforming political project have not been successful. The calm, sensible political center is never as dramatic nor interesting as the left and right fringes, waving their machetes at each other.

That, however, does not mean it could never happen. It just means it will be very hard -- very hard indeed -- to do. This time it looks more promising than previous attempts to break the two-party lock on the presidency. Instead of forming around one isolated egotist, a whole host of political luminaries of both parties is rallying in support.

While the group has its own principal egotist, he is a lot smarter and a lot better financed than any predecessor. We speak of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the undisputed leader of the indie pack who is playing coy about making a run for it.

But he grows less shy the closer he gets to a decision, which he says will come after the mass of big-state primaries Feb. 5.

Last week, Bloomberg sharply criticized the two parties for offering meaningless bromides instead of answers to problems. Of course that won't be enough to sustain a legitimate campaign, but it's a start. We haven't heard his answers either.

The premise of an independent candidacy is: the two parties are so far apart on major issues that they cannot find common ground.

Recent history demonstrates this is true. D.C. politics have become so polarized that nothing is accomplished. The leading candidates in both parties reflect this. There is remarkable consensus within each party, but the differences between seem irreconcilable.

Unity08 does not pretend there are no major differences between the parties. The new group says the political problem is there are too many differences on policy and principle that can only be resolved by a third party. An ambitious goal.

Its founding members come from the political elite of both parties; these are not unknowns with no prior stature -- the likes of former Democratic senators David Boren, Sam Nunn and Bob Graham, and from the GOP side Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., as well as former N.J. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

These are people out of power, but they understand its uses. They are not the innocents who signed up with Ross Perot for the intrigue of joining a cranky billionaire whose idea of governing was balancing the budget and a line-item veto. When he tanked, so did his so-called Reform party, in which he immediately lost interest.

This time the campaign for Unity08 is organized, and ready to go -- if it can stir up enough interest. Last summer, when Bloomberg dropped his Republican affiliation -- which he had adopted after dropping his Democratic affiliation -- he and GOP California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger joked about a joint presidential ticket. Schwarzenegger, born in Austria, is barred by the Constitution from running, but the buddy act demonstrated an approach that appeals to many voters tired of the partisan bickering and stalemates in D.C. There is nothing that says Schwarzenegger, as the voice of liberal California, cannot be an important player, short of White House occupancy. Beyond the East coast, where reporters chronicle every Bloomberg move, the rest of the nation knows little about him. Except the paper record.

He is worth billions, and like Mitt Romney, can finance not only a campaign but a party to go with it. He is savvy and practical and basically non-ideological.

And he has, by all accounts, been a very good mayor in a very tough city. (Rudy Giuliani, his GOP predecessor, does not agree, but that's a subject for future examination.) Does that make Bloomberg a good presidential candidate? Who knows unless he tries? At least he would shift national focus from everything-south to the viewpoint from Yankee country.

Marianne Means is a Washington, D.C., columnist with Hearst Newspapers.