Why the Haters “Hate” Governor Palin

Hat Tip to BostonPatriot @ Thanks to Palin





Attacks on Gov. Sarah Palin by McCain campaign staff at first appear to be a case of making her a convenient scapegoat, but the attacks have a more devious motive. This post-election barrage is the first volley of the campaign to choose the Republican nominee in 2012. The Washington, D.C. based establishment that rules the GOP wants her career over now. She threatens them.

Firefighting 101 teaches it is easier to stomp out a wildfire when it is small. Don’t allow the fire to grow, spread and become an inferno. Sarah Palin was the spark of McCain’s reform campaign. She ignited the campaign and gave the reform message legitimacy.

Those knifing Palin are the old-guard Republicans who don’t want to see her as the nominee in 2012. The old-guard GOP candidates are likely Gov. Haley Barbour or former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Sarah Palin brought a vibrant, fresh face to the Republican Party. The GOP elitists saw how she easily connected with voters. Palin drew huge crowds of up to 30,000 people anxious to see and hear her. The crowds flocking to see Gov. Palin bond with her culturally. She has the potential to garner Obama- or Reagan-like devotion.

The Republican Party needs this grassroots energy and her reform agenda after a decade of broken promises and the disappointing Bush presidency.

Looking back at history, you see resemblances of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan in Palin. Both Thatcher and Reagan were dismissed and insulted by their own party stalwarts. “Useful idiot” was a term once leveled at President Reagan.

Palin hails from Wasilla, Alaska; Margaret Thatcher grew up in the apartment over her family’s grocery store in a small town in England. Thatcher’s father taught her never to do things because other people were doing them. He said, “Do what you think is right and then persuade others to follow you.” Like Thatcher, Palin’s political philosophy and economic policies emphasize reduced government intervention, free markets and entrepreneurialism.

Margaret Thatcher was willing to take a hard line and earned the nickname “Iron Lady” for her tough-talking rhetoric defiantly opposing the Soviet Union. Likewise, Palin is tough enough to stand up to present-day threats. While Thatcher earned the moniker of ‘Attila the Hen,” Palin calls herself a “Pit-bull with Lipstick” and others dub her “Sarah Barracuda.”

Human, likeable, personable and witty like Reagan, with loads of common sense and confidence, Sarah Palin lives what she believes. And the camera loves her as it loved Ronald Reagan.

Grass-roots efforts are sure to encourage Palin to run in for president in 2012. Meanwhile, she trusts a higher power, saying she is, “Putting my life in my creator’s hands---that is what I always do.” She also said, “I’m like, God, if there is an open door for me somewhere, this is what I always pray, …don’t let me miss the open door…And if there is an open door in ’12 or four years later, and if it is something that is going to be good for my family, for my state, for my nation, an opportunity for me, then I’ll plow through that door.”

This rising star is now too bright to be extinguished by attempts at sabotage. She has addressed the criticism, setting the record straight concerning the purchase of clothes for herself and her family by the Republican National Committee, saying, “Those are the RNC’s clothes, they are not my clothes. I never forced anybody to buy anything. I never asked for anything more than maybe a Diet Dr Pepper every once in a while.” And then there’s the ridiculous rumors regarding the debate prep about NAFTA and Africa. Palin summed it up well, calling it “cruel, it’s mean-spirited, it’s immature, and it’s unprofessional,” and said, “Those guys are jerks if they came away with it taking thing out of context, then tried to spread something on national news.”

Yet Palin realizes criticism is to be expected in politics. “Your life is an open book and you open yourself up to criticism and you’d better be ready to take that criticism,” she said. “In other words, don’t run for office if you can’t handle it.”

Those staffers guilty of anonymous attacks are cowards. Their agenda to control the GOP needs to be seen for what it is -- an attempt to kill the career of Sarah Palin because it threatens them. Americans can see through the falsehoods and love the real Sarah Palin. Nearly 400 letters arrive daily addressed to Gov. Palin and are now piled high in big bags waiting for her.

Floyd and Mary Beth Brown are bestselling authors and speakers. Mary Beth's latest book is featured at www.condibook.com Together they maintain a blog at www.2minuteview.com

The 2012 GOP Field (First Call)

Hat Tip to Dan




What the Republican field will look like in four years. Obviously, there are many variables along the way, ranging from how beatable Obama looks to the 2010 midterms; I'm just forecasting with the known knowns we have today. As usual there will probably be 10 or so candidates, but from where we sit today there look to be four slots from which to put together a credible primary campaign:

(1) The Populist Candidate: With its Washington leadership beheaded, the GOP is likely to become more of a populist and culturally conservative party in the next four years. Mike Huckabee showed this year the power and the limitations of a pure populist campaign, far exceeding expectations with nearly no resources or name recognition (although Huck was out of step with the populists on one of the major causes of grassroots frustration with DC, immigration). Against the backdrop of a tax-spend-regulate Obama Administration, a crucial challenge will be squaring populism with the GOP's need to appeal to economic and fiscal conservatives to expand out of the Huck-size niche. Realistically, the populist candidate is likely to end up as the most moderate serious candidate in the field.

As things stand today, Sarah Palin is the obvious populist candidate and, for now, the very-very-early frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, given her now-massive name recognition (the woman's every TV appearance is a ratings bonanza), amazing talents as a retail politician, appeal to the base, and the GOP tendency towards nominating the next in line.

Granted, only two candidates in the part century (Bob Dole and Franklin D. Roosevelt) have won a major party nomination after being the VP nominee for a losing ticket (not counting Mondale, who'd already been VP), those two waited 12 and 20 years before doing so, respectively, and recent history has been unkind to those who tried (Edwards 2008, Lieberman 2004 - see also Quayle 2000).

I'll expand another day on the challenges facing Gov. Palin - the short answer is that inexperience is the easiest thing in the world to fix, but she'll have to face tougher budgetary times in Alaska in light of falling oil revenues, she'll have to withstand what is likely to be an ongoing national campaign by the Democrats to take her down or hobble her re-election efforts to cut off the likeliest threat to Obama, and she'll have to develop and sell her own, independent agenda and demonstrate a greater breadth and depth of knowledge on national politics than are required from the running mate slot.

Upside in the primaries: the socially conservative, moose-hunting hockey mom could potentially be well-suited to the early GOP primary/caucus electorates in Iowa, New Hampshire and Michigan.

(2) The Establishment Candidate: The GOP by tradition tends to fall in behind whoever is the candidate of the establishment - of country clubs and boardrooms and Beltway insiders. Part of being a Republican, of course, is having the maturity to understand that being the establishment candidate is not a bad thing. But an angry grassroots is going to take some serious persuading to pick another establishment figure.

The best establishment candidate should be Jeb Bush, for a variety of reasons, but four years won't be enough - if any length of time is - to rebuild the Bush brand within the GOP, let alone the general electorate.

That leaves Mitt Romney as the logical next step; Mitt is currently out of office and thus less equipped to get more experience, but he'll have the money and energy to spend four years staking himself out as a consistent conservative voice and putting the distance of time between 2012 and the flip-flop charges of 2008.

South Dakota Senator John Thune is also sometimes mentioned, but after 1964, 1996 and now 2008, the GOP has hopefully learned its lesson about nominating legislators for President, especially sitting Senators. Newly re-elected Indiana Governor and former Bush budget director Mitch Daniels (see here and here) will have his name come up but more likely as a VP nominee.

(3) The Full-Spectrum Conservative: The Fred Thompson role from 2008 but one that will pack a lot more potential appeal in 2012.

Bobby Jindal is the best of the lot, but while he's already got an impressive resume, Jindal's so young (he's 37, which makes him the age Romney was in 1985), so he can afford to wait out several more election cycles; he's up for re-election in 2011, which makes running in 2012 very problematic; and he really and genuinely wants to stay in Louisiana long enough to make real changes in his beloved home state's legendarily corrupt and dysfunctional political culture.

The other main contender for this slot is South Carolina's Governor Mark Sanford, now in his second term as Governor after 3 in Congress. SC is the most favorable turf for a candidate of this type among the early primary states, so with Sanford running as a favorite son he could basically block out any other challengers, and if he doesn't run for re-election in 2010 (offhand I don't know whether he's term-limited), he'd have a logistical advantage over Palin, who will presumably still be in office as governor of a geographically remote state.

(4) The National Security Candidate: After four years of Obama, there's also likely to be strong sentiment for adult leadership on national security. Traditionally, the GOP has tended to prioritize this issue (in 2008, both McCain and Giuliani ran primarily as national security candidates).

But especially with Senators in disfavor, the supply of candidates with more national security credentials than a typical Governor is short - most of the Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld types in the party will be past their prime by 2012, and I continue to doubt that Condi Rice could be a viable candidate for a multitude of reasons.

The name you're likely to hear is CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, but Gen. Petraeus - who I assume will remain on active duty for another year or two, at least, and who President Obama dare not fire - has no political experience and no known domestic-policy profile (we don't even know if he's a Republican). My guess is that if we nominate a governor in 2012, Gen. Petraeus will be much in demand as a running mate. After that, I'm not sure who will even try to fill this slot in the primaries.

Sorry, but that's the list; the no-more-McCains sentiment among the base will make it impossible for someone like Tim Pawlenty to mount a credible campaign as a moderate, nobody will bother trying to re-create the crippling damage inflicted on Rudy Giuliani from running with a record as a social liberal, and no Ron Paul type candidate (especially Ron Paul) is ever going to make a serious dent. It's those four slots or bust.

And I, for one, am definitely not committing yet to who I'll support as between Palin or a Sanford or Jindal run or maybe somebody else (obviously I'm not a Mitt fan). There's two long years ahead of us before that choice begins to arise.

Saw this on a car in
Moore, Oklahoma USA

McCain campaign improper robocalls

Robocalls 1

Robocalls 2

For more Info click here

Huckabee say Romney blackmail Clear Channel ?

This video was sent to me by a friend from the Tulsa, Oklahoma Huckabee event on Feb. 1, 2008, this is from the Media only part of the event

At 1:35 in to the video Huckabee say that maybe Romney ?blackmail? Clear Channel into having Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and other back Romney.

Edmondson orders McCain campaign to stop improper robocalls

Attorney General Drew Edmondson orders Republican presidential candidate John McCain's campaign to stop making prerecoded automated political telephone calls to Oklahomans that don't comply with federal law.

Edmondson's action was a response to a complaint filed today by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign about so-called "robocalls" allegedly made by McCain's campaign to many Oklahomans in recent days.

The two candidates are among a slate of Republican and Democratic hopefuls campaigning in Oklahoma and 21 other states in presidential preference primaries tomorrow.

A letter to Edmondson from Romney campaign officials said Oklahoma residents had reported that the McCain campaign calls don't provide a telephone number for the originating entity at any time during the call as required by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

"Robo-callers" must provide a telephone number so that Oklahoma residents can contact the source of the call and demand to be removed from call lists.

Chambers Endorses Mitt Romney

Oklahoma Republican National Committeewoman Bunny Chambers announced her endorsement of Governor Mitt Romney. Committeewoman Chambers has years of experience working in Oklahoma politics working to support the Republican Party and conservative candidates.

"From the grassroots level to the leadership of the Republican Party, Committeewoman Chambers has been a strong Republican leader over much of the last three decades. Her knowledge of Oklahoma politics will be critical as we approach the primary on February 5th. I look forward to working with her in the months ahead as we advance our campaign to change Washington," said Governor Romney.

Committeewoman Chambers added, "Governor Romney has had an impressive career of bringing change to troubled institutions. That is leadership we need in Washington today. The people of Oklahoma want a leader who will bring change and that leader is Governor Romney. I am proud to support his candidacy and encourage all my fellow Republicans in Oklahoma to cast their vote for Governor Romney."

Bunny Has Served As Oklahoma's Republican National Committeewoman Since 1996. She currently serves on the Executive Committee of the Republican State Committee of Oklahoma. She has also held numerous positions on the grassroots level in her precinct and House District. Chambers has been a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1988, 1996, 2000 and 2004.

EBay's retiring chief may run for California governor

EBay's retiring chief may run for
California governor

Meg Whitman, who raised funds for
Romney, has been asking
key Republicans about the possibilities,
sources say.

By Joe Mathews, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 25, 2008

As she prepares to depart from EBay after a decade at the helm, Chief Executive Meg Whitman appears to be investigating a new career -- in politics.

Whitman has talked with top Republicans about the possibility of a run for California governor in 2010, according to three operatives who have had discussions with her. Whitman is said to be asking detailed questions about the logistics of a run and the effect she could have as governor, according to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal the conversations.

EBay president and CEO Meg Whitman arrives at the
Allen and Company media and Technology Conference,
Sun Valley, Idaho, July 13, 2007 in this file photo.

Whitman did not make herself available for comment. A source close to her said she had been talking with Republicans around the state and had become "fascinated" by politics in her work as a fundraiser for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts and a former colleague of Whitman at the consulting firm Bain & Co.

The source close to Whitman, however, downplayed the seriousness of the conversations, saying that Whitman was still new to politics and that California Republicans, not Whitman, were the ones driving the discussion.

"This thing has come to her," the source said. "She hasn't given it all that much thought. It's not, 'I'm going to run. Give me a game plan.' "

Last September, Whitman switched her party registration from "decline to state" to Republican, according to records in San Mateo County, where she lives. The source close to Whitman said she had made the change in part so she could vote for Romney in the Feb. 5 Republican primary, which is closed to independents this year.

"Whitman has the potential to be a very strong candidate," says former Republican consultant Dan Schnur. "She brings very strong private sector experience to the table, and her involvement in politics gives her a potential base of support as well."

Whitman could breathe life into a party that has little money and few stars beyond Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is often at odds with Republican doctrine.

A moderate, she is a billionaire who could fund her own campaign. She ranked No. 361 on Forbes' 2007 list of the richest Americans, with an estimated net worth of $1.4 billion.

Another anticipated GOP gubernatorial candidate, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, is also a billionaire from Silicon Valley. The two do not know each other.

Whitman, like Poizner, could face a difficult Republican primary against a conservative candidate such as State Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks). "It will be very difficult for her to explain to primary voters why she and Steve Poizner are different in any respect other than gender," Schnur said.

Former Republican Party Chairman Duf Sundheim, who was among those who encouraged Schwarzenegger to leave Hollywood for politics, says he sees Whitman as a potential candidate.

Sundheim is leading an effort to find candidates for 2010 and is talking to people inside and outside politics, including nontraditional candidates who are wealthy enough to finance their own campaigns, according to people who have spoken with him. Three sources said Whitman is among the candidates with whom he has talked.

"I've heard from others that Meg may have an interest in running for office someday," Sundheim said in an interview Thursday.

"We have many excellent potential candidates and I think Meg could be one of those candidates, and I hope she seriously considers it."

Margaret C. "Meg" Whitman, a 51-year-old New York native, joined EBay as its president and chief executive in 1998, when the online auction company had 30 employees and annual revenues of $4 million, according to a biography posted on the company's website. The company now has 15,000 employees globally.

Whitman said Wednesday that she would retire from EBay on March 31.

Since launching her career at Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati in 1979, Whitman has spent her professional life in the corporate sector, as an executive at toy maker Hasbro, Florists Transworld Delivery, Stride Rite Corp. and the Walt Disney Co.

She did her undergraduate work at Princeton and later earned a master's degree at Harvard Business School.

joe.mathews@latimes.com

(Oklahoma) Campaigns heat up for Super Tuesday

Campaigns heat up for
Super Tuesday

By Michael McNutt
Capitol Bureau
Sun January 27, 2008

Any of the presidential candidates could visit Oklahoma before voters go to the polls next week, campaign coordinators and volunteer workers say.

Campaign activity in the state is expected to intensify through the Feb. 5 Super Tuesday election, when 24 states — including Oklahoma — hold primaries or caucuses.

Candidates will spend most of their time in states that have more delegates, but campaign workers said each contender considers Oklahoma important.

No visits by any of the major presidential contenders is scheduled for this week in Oklahoma, but that could change if campaign strategists or schedulers can squeeze in a stop in the Sooner State.

Democratic contender Hillary Clinton, the first candidate to air TV commercials statewide, should get a boost when her husband speaks at a campaign rally and fundraiser on the University of Oklahoma campus. Former President Clinton — and possibly their daughter, Chelsea — will appear at a campaign rally Wednesday at the Lloyd Noble Center.

A fundraiser is set for 1:15 p.m. in the Courtside Club at the Lloyd Noble Center to raise money for Clinton. .

"In addition to being the only campaign on the air with a statewide ad, we are building on our already strong organization in Oklahoma with new staff, more volunteers and a flurry of campaign activity,” said Deirde Murphy, Oklahoma campaign communications director for Clinton.

Two Republican presidential candidates stopped by Oklahoma last week. Daniel Gilbert, a North Carolina businessman, and Jerry Curry, a retired Army general from Virginia, are long shots to win the Republican nomination. Curry made his formal announcement last week in Norman and will be campaigning in the state through Tuesday.

Workers for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama, a U.S. senator from Illinois, have set up call centers in Ardmore and Oklahoma City where supporters are making nightly calls, said Ben LaBolt, with the Obama campaign.

"We believe in a race this tight, organization matters, and neighbor-to-neighbor conversations about why Barack Obama is the candidate who will bring change we can believe in are the most persuasive of all,” LaBolt said.

While the Clinton and Obama campaigns have brought in workers from other states, the campaign of Democratic contender John Edwards is relying on Oklahoma volunteers. There is no plan to open a campaign office in Oklahoma.

Edwards has been in Oklahoma the most recently. Two weeks ago, he made two stops three days apart.

Renzi Stone, an Oklahoma campaign spokesman and volunteer for Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani, said "a group of hard-core volunteers” is working for the former New York mayor.

"Oklahoma is very important for him, especially if he can do well in Florida (Tuesday),” Stone said.

Chad Alexander, one of the grassroots coordinators for GOP presidential contender John McCain, said momentum is picking up in the state for the U.S. senator from Arizona. Volunteers are calling every night and efforts are under way to make sure McCain's supporters get out to vote, he said.

"This state is shaping up very well for John McCain,” he said.

Scott Pruitt, Oklahoma chairman for Republican presidential contender Mike Huckabee, said the former Arkansas governor is doing well in Oklahoma. Rallies are scheduled across the state for Huckabee, he said.

"Super Tuesday could be a wonderful day for him, and Oklahoma's a big part of that,” Pruitt said.

Kirk Shelley, Oklahoma state coordinator for GOP presidential contender Ron Paul, said about 800 volunteers are working in Oklahoma. The campaign has a telephone center in Tulsa and a headquarters in Oklahoma City for the Texas congressman, Shelley said.

Thad Balkman, volunteer Oklahoma state coordinator for Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, said support for his candidate is growing.

"I'm getting a lot of phone calls and e-mails every day from people around the state that are watching the debates and reading the stuff on the Internet,” he said.

Gov. Henry keeps his options open

Gov. Brad Henry isn't vying to be the running mate for any of the Democratic presidential contenders. But he said he would consider the possibility if asked.

"That's crazy speculation,” he said of his being considered for vice president. "If anybody were asked to serve in a president's administration, you would have to give it serious consideration.

"I am really happy right here in Oklahoma doing what I'm doing, and I just have no desire to go to Washington, D.C.,” Henry said. "I plan to stay right here.”

Henry, who won two-thirds of the vote in his 2006 re-election, remains popular in the state and has shown that he can work with leaders from the Republican Party. The message of bipartisanship is a popular theme among most presidential candidates as the sense many voters are tired of the bickering on Capitol Hill brought about mainly by partisan politics.

Henry, who will serve as an Oklahoma delegate at the Democratic National Convention, isn't planning to endorse any Democratic presidential candidate before the Feb. 5 state primary or the Democratic National Convention in August.

"At this point, I think it's smart not to get committed to a particular candidate,” Henry said. "Ultimately, I will support the Democratic nominee for president, but it puts Oklahoma in a good position to have a little bit of influence down the line because we haven't already committed and already haven't written everybody else off.”

The governor said he is undecided.

"I don't know exactly who I'm supporting for president,” Henry said. "Ill figure that out hopefully and I will cast my vote Feb. 5.”

Michael McNutt, Capitol Bureau

PEGGY NOONAN: Bush destroyed the Republican Party...

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do
By PEGGY NOONAN
January 25, 2008; Page W14

We begin, as one always must now, again, with Bill Clinton. The past week he has traveled South Carolina, leaving discord in his wake. Barack Obama, that "fairytale," is low, sneaky. "He put out a hit job on me." The press is cruelly carrying Mr. Obama's counter-jabs. "You live for it."

In Dillon, S.C., according to the Associated Press, on Thursday Mr. Clinton "predicted that many voters will be guided mainly by gender and race loyalties" and suggested his wife may lose Saturday's primary because black voters will side with Mr. Obama. Who is raising race as an issue? Bill Clinton knows. It's the press, and Mr. Obama. "Shame on you," Mr. Clinton said to a CNN reporter. The same day the Web site believed to be the backdoor of the Clinton war room unveiled a new name for the senator from Illinois: "Sticky Fingers Obama."

Bill Clinton, with his trembly, red-faced rage, makes John McCain look young. His divisive and destructive daily comportment—this is a former president of the United States—is a civic embarrassment. It is also an education, and there is something heartening in this.

There are many serious and thoughtful liberals and Democrats who support Mr. Obama and John Edwards, and who are seeing Mr. Clinton in a new way and saying so. Here is William Greider in The Nation, the venerable left-liberal magazine. The Clintons are "high minded" on the surface but "smarmily duplicitous underneath, meanwhile jabbing hard at the groin area. They are a slippery pair and come as a package. The nation is at fair risk of getting them back in the White House for four years."

That, again, is from one of the premier liberal journals in the United States. It is exactly what conservatives have been saying for a decade. This may mark a certain coming together of the thoughtful on both sides. The Clintons, uniters at last.

Mr. Obama takes the pummeling and preaches the high road. It's all windup with him, like a great pitcher more comfortable preparing to throw than throwing. Something in him resists aggression. He tends to be indirect in his language, feinting, only suggestive. I used to think he was being careful not to tear the party apart, and endanger his own future.

But the Clintons are tearing the party apart. It will not be the same after this. It will not be the same after its most famous leader, and probable ultimate victor, treated a proud and accomplished black man who is a U.S. senator as if he were nothing, a mere impediment to their plans. And to do it in a way that signals, to his supporters, How dare you have the temerity, the ingratitude, after all we've done for you?

Watch for the GOP to attempt swoop in after the November elections and make profit of the wreckage.

As for the Republicans, their slow civil war continues. The primary race itself is winnowing down and clarifying: It is John McCain versus Mitt Romney, period. At the same time the conservative journalistic world is convulsed by recrimination and attack. They're throwing each other out of the party. Republicans have become very good at that. David Brooks damns Rush Limbaugh who knocks Bill Kristol who anathematizes whoever is to be anathematized this week. This Web site opposes that magazine.

The rage is due to many things. A world is ending, the old world of conservative meaning, and ascendancy. Loss leads to resentment. Different pundits back different candidates. Some opportunistically discover new virtues in candidates who appear at the moment to be winning. Some feel they cannot be fully frank about causes and effects.

More on that in a moment.

I saw Mr. McCain this Tuesday in New York, at a fund-raiser at which a breathless aide shared, "We just made a million dollars." What a difference a few wins makes. There were a hundred people outside chanting, "Mac is back!" and perhaps a thousand people inside, crammed into a three-chandelier ballroom at the St. Regis. When I attended a fund-raiser in October there was none of this; perhaps 200 came, and people were directed to crowd around the candidate as if to show he had support. Now you had to fight your way through a three-ring cluster. (When I attended a Giuliani fund-raiser this summer I saw something I wish I'd noted: The audience was big but wasn't listening. They were all on their BlackBerrys. That should have told me something about his support.)

Mr. McCain is in the middle of a shift. Previous strategy: I'm John McCain and you know me, we've traveled through history together. New strategy: I'm the old vet who fought on the front lines of the Reagan-era front, and I am about to take on the mantle of the essentials of conservatism—lower spending, smaller government, strong in the world. He is going to strike the great Reagan gong, not in a way that is new but in a way that is new for him.

In this he is repositioning himself back to where he started 30 years ago: as a Southwestern American conservative veteran of the armed forces. That is, inherently if not showily, anti-establishment. That is, I am the best of the past.

Mr. Romney, on the other hand, is running as I Am Today. I am new and fresh, in fact I'm tomorrow, I know all about the international flow of money and the flatness of the world, I know what China is, I can see you through the turbulence just as I saw Bain to success.

It will all come down to: Whom do Republicans believe? Mr. Romney in spite of his past and now-disavowed liberal positions? Or Mr. McCain in spite of his forays, the past 10 years, into a kind of establishment mindset that has suggested that The Establishment Knows Best?

Do conservatives take inspiration from Mr. Romney's newness? Or do they take comfort and security from Mr. McCain's rugged ability to endure, and to remind?

It is along those lines the big decision will be made.

On the pundit civil wars, Rush Limbaugh declared on the radio this week, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys [Mr. McCain or Mike Huckabee] get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican Party. It's going to change it forever, be the end of it!"

This is absurd. George W. Bush destroyed the Republican Party, by which I mean he sundered it, broke its constituent pieces apart and set them against each other. He did this on spending, the size of government, war, the ability to prosecute war, immigration and other issues.

Were there other causes? Yes, of course. But there was an immediate and essential cause.

And this needs saying, because if you don't know what broke the elephant you can't put it together again. The party cannot re-find itself if it can't trace back the moment at which it became lost. It cannot heal an illness whose origin is kept obscure.

I believe that some of the ferocity of the pundit wars is due to a certain amount of self-censorship. It's not in human nature to enjoy self-censorship. The truth will out, like steam from a kettle. It hurts to say something you supported didn't work. I would know. But I would say of these men (why, in the continuing age of Bill Clinton, does the emoting come from the men?) who are fighting one another as they resist naming the cause for the fight: Sack up, get serious, define. That's the way to help.

Members Of Bipartisan Organization Push Bloomberg For President

Members Of Bipartisan Organization
Push Bloomberg For President

January 11, 2008

Several members of a bipartisan organization have left their group to begin a new mission -- drafting Mayor Michael Bloomberg for a presidential run.

Organizers for Unity 08 say two key staffers have left the group to form a committee to encourage the mayor to enter the race as an independent candidate.

Bloomberg says he is not a candidate -- but is gathering data to gauge support for a run.

Unity 08 was formed to craft an alternative, bipartisan ticket through online voting. But the project has been suspended after the group failed to receive enough support and ran into fundraising restrictions.

Unity Founders Head To Bloomberg Effort?

Two of the founding members of Unity '08 – a bipartisan group which was dedicated to fielding a national ticket comprising leaders of both mayor parties – have left the organization to perhaps join efforts to woo New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as an independent candidate. Former Republican consultant Doug Bailey and former Carter White House communications director Jerry Rafshoon have left Unity '08. An open letter e-mailed to supporters stated that the group had "lost" the pair "to a committee forming to draft Mayor Bloomberg should the circumstances seem right." (The letter, posted on the Unity '08 Web site now says the two "have stepped down from the board and may have more to say about their plans in the near future). "We'll have something to say next week," Rafshoon tells the New York Daily News.

The future of Unity '08 is also tenuous, according to the letter, which cites a Federal Election Commission ruling for limiting their fund-raising ability. "And so reluctantly," the letter states, "especially given the volatility of the present situation, we're forced to scale back - not cease - our operations and suspend our ballot access project. Our website will become less interactive (it takes staff to answer hundreds of e-mails a day) and we can't in good faith make the $5 million commitment necessary to make a serious start on ballot access."

Meanwhile, the pressure is growing on Bloomberg to make a decision on a potential bid. For months, the mayor has denied interest in such a campaign while his aides and supporters have deliberately plotted one and shared such plans with the press. A front-page story in the New York Times greets the mayor this morning with the headline: "Calls Grow for Bloomberg to Make Up His Mind." From the story: "Mr. Bloomberg’s dalliance with the idea of running for president has stretched on and on, with his enthusiastic approval despite the public denials. But even before actually entering the contest, Mr. Bloomberg may have already risked losing something: people’s patience."

Calls Grow for Bloomberg to Make Up His Mind

Calls Grow for Bloomberg
to Make Up His Mind

By DIANE CARDWELL and RAY RIVERA
Published: January 11, 2008

Nearly every day a tiny new development trickles out from the stealth presidential campaign of Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire mayor of New York.

He has talked with Chuck Hagel and Sam Nunn, potential running mates. He has delivered a tart critique of the presidential field. He is conducting intricate polling to test his appeal in all 50 states.

Mr. Bloomberg’s dalliance with the idea of running for president has stretched on and on, with his enthusiastic approval despite the public denials. But even before actually entering the contest, Mr. Bloomberg may have already risked losing something: people’s patience.

The political parlor game — Will he run? When will he decide? How much could he spend? — that has so delighted Mr. Bloomberg is suddenly sparking a backlash. Editorial pages from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Post, The Village Voice and The New Yorker have taken him to task. Members of the administration have been rolling their eyes and referring to Kevin Sheekey, Mr. Bloomberg’s political architect, as the deputy mayor for presidential politics.

And a recent poll conducted by Quinnipiac University found that 61 percent of New Yorkers thought Mr. Bloomberg had a “moral obligation” to serve out his full term. The survey, of 1,162 New York City voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, also found that while 16 percent wanted to see him run for president rather than for governor, 32 percent did not want him to run for either office.

“People might be saying, ‘C’mon, do your job,’ ” said Maurice Carroll, director of the polling institute at Quinnipiac. “Maybe people are thinking, ‘Look, it’s such a long shot; why don’t you think about what to do about traffic congestion in Bay Ridge?’ ”

Others offered a blunter assessment.

“It’s a very long prelude, and I think it is becoming a very old story very fast,” said Robert Zimmerman, a communications specialist who is one of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s fund-raisers. “Mike Bloomberg has failed to make a case that he represents an independent movement, as opposed to a former Democratic liberal, former Republican, former Bush-backer running a campaign of opportunism.”

To be sure, there is little indication that ordinary voters around the country have given much thought to a Bloomberg candidacy, especially given the dramatic primary races in the two major parties. But his enormous wealth and willingness to spend it make him someone who cannot be ignored within the political world.

At this point, the fatigue with Mr. Bloomberg’s national ambitions seems highest within the political chattering class, but it could spread if the mayor continues to dance around his intentions without saying clearly what they are, analysts said. The speculation began in earnest last June, when he switched his registration from Republican to independent.

“With the way that he’s playing this right now, it features all the things that we like least about Michael Bloomberg,” said David S. Birdsell, dean of the School of Public Affairs at Baruch College. “It features him as the testy, hard-to-satisfy critic of candidates who are already in the race, and it buttresses, the longer this goes on, the aloof critic role we might associate with a billionaire above the political fray rather than the dedicated politician and competent manager.”

Adding to the potential for national ennui, Mr. Birdsell said, was “the very long and frustrating Fred Thompson dance over the summer,” which reduced the tolerance for indecision.

“That is going to make everybody considerably more focused on getting him to declare and to not have an erosion of enthusiasm that Fred Thompson experienced,” he said.

Closer to home, though, the impatience is already palpable, and could grow as the city’s economic situation turns more dire. After five years of ballooning surpluses, the Independent Budget Office last week projected a $3.1 billion deficit in 2009 and $4.6 billion in 2010, driven by the housing slump and softening Wall Street profits.

“There’s been a sea change where we’re moving into choppier fiscal waters that we haven’t had to navigate before,” said Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president. With the convergence of what is shaping up to be a painful budget process this month and the presidential campaign calendar, he said, “they’re going to have to show their cards.”

“He has this great political good will,” he said, “but this is the day-to-day work of being the mayor and it’s going to be hard to do the day-to-day work while slipping off to Oklahoma, unless we New Yorkers know what the program is.”

George Arzt, a political consultant who was press secretary to Mayor Edward I. Koch, said that Mr. Bloomberg was risking the political fate of Mayor John V. Lindsay, whose 1972 presidential campaign took a hit when Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic Party boss, Meade H. Esposito, urged him to end his cross-country campaigning and address the city’s growing economic ills.

In a comment that was splashed across front pages at the time, Mr. Esposito said, “Little Sheba better come home.”

“There are people who have been watching Kevin Sheekey for a long time doing what he’s doing now,” Mr. Arzt said, adding that they wonder, “What’s the endgame?”

Stu Loeser, the mayor’s chief spokesman, said that he did not worry about New Yorkers becoming frustrated with Mr. Bloomberg’s handling of his national ambitions, and that the speculation helped bring Mr. Bloomberg more attention to advance his agenda in Washington and elsewhere.

“I’m not sure that increased speculation or increased elevation is harmful,” he said. “We spent part of the day in Albany yesterday, and judging from reaction of the rank-and-file members that we met with, it seemed that they were more focused on what the mayor had to say than less.”

And others played down the notion that Mr. Bloomberg was sowing ill will because the city is largely perceived to be well run.

“I find just as many people who like that he’s a big star as are concerned that he’s out of town too much,” said Representative Anthony D. Weiner, a likely candidate for mayor in 2009 who represents parts of Brooklyn and Queens. “Now, obviously, you don’t want to be caught giving a speech in California if the streets are clogged with snow in Queens, but so far, so good.”

Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College polls tracking New York politics, said he does not believe frustration will grow over Mr. Bloomberg’s denials of interest in the presidency, mainly because there is not a groundswell of support for him to run.

“I’m thinking about when Mario Cuomo was hemming and hawing for several years, and I think that was more frustrating for people because there was a huge support base for him to do it,” Mr. Miringoff said. “And that’s not there right now for Bloomberg.”

A WNBC/Marist poll of 505 registered voters released last week said 60 percent of New York State voters wanted a strong third political party, but only 27 percent said they thought Mr. Bloomberg should run and only 12 percent thought he would win.

Whether momentum will build for his candidacy remains to be seen. Although there are several groups working to support an independent run this year, one of them, Unity08, is significantly scaling back its operations and stopping its project designed to help independent candidates get on the ballot. In a letter released to members Thursday, organizers said that they did not have enough members or money to get on the ballot in all 50 states and create an online convention to nominate a bipartisan ticket.

Two of their leaders, the letter said, were forming a committee to draft Mr. Bloomberg “should the circumstances seem right.”

Jonathan P. Hicks contributed reporting.

Irritation at Bloomberg’s dallying

Irritation at Bloomberg’s dallying

By Christopher Grimes in New York
Published: January 11 2008 19:15

Even as Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, conducts sophisticated polls assessing his chances in an independent campaign, some in the city he leads are growing impatient with his drawn-out flirtation with a bid for the US presidency.

A poll this week showed that 62 per cent of New Yorkers believed Mr Bloomberg was “morally obligated” to serve out the rest of his mayoral term, which ends in January 2010.

“We elected you for a four-year second term and you have an obligation to serve the whole four years” was the message from New Yorkers, said Maurice Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University-sponsored poll.

In an editorial this week Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post, which has generally supported Mr Bloomberg, urged him to make up his mind quickly.

Mr Bloomberg has stirred speculation about his bid by making ever more frequent trips out of New York. His presence this week at a bipartisan forum in Oklahoma helped keep him in the national spotlight even as voters went to the polls in the New Hampshire primary.

But in New York there is a growing sense the mayor should stick closer to home, particularly given the concerns about how a weaker year on Wall Street could affect the local economy.

The Quinnipiac poll found most New Yorkers believed Mr Bloomberg would run for president and, while his approval rating is high at 73 per cent, most say they will not vote for him.

But he is unlikely to bow to the pressure at home. Political analysts say they do not expect Mr Bloomberg to announce a bid until after the February 5 primaries, in which 20 states will vote.

He may wait even longer, until after the results of the Texas primary on March 4, to survey the field of nominees and assess their vulnerability in the general election.

With a practically unlimited war chest – he is believed to be prepared to spend up to $1bn (€676m, £511m) of his fortune on a run – Mr Bloomberg’s supporters say he believes he can afford to wait.

Until then, Mr Bloomberg is conducting detailed – and expensive – polls in all 50 states to determine the appetite for a third-party bid, as well as how his views mesh with those of the voters.

Unsurprisingly for someone who built a media empire by providing specialised data to financial traders, Mr Bloomberg used sophisticated polling techniques in his cam- paigns for mayor that provided a highly detailed picture of the New York electorate.

Doug Schoen, whose polling company created the system used in those campaigns, said on Friday that Mr Bloomberg was using the polls to make a “hard-headed assessment” of his chances.

“As a CEO, he was used to getting the most sophisticated data available,” said Mr Schoen, who is not currently working for Mr Bloomberg.

The Bloomberg Primary: Unity08 Loses, Independence (Party) Wins

The Bloomberg Primary:
Unity08 Loses,
Independence (Party) Wins

BY AZI PAYBARAH | JANUARY 11, 2008

“I was in 26 states in the last 76 days,” Frank MacKay, chairman of the Independence Party of America, said in a phone interview at 11 p.m. last night while driving through Alabama. “Every single state that I’ve been in, we’re talking ballot access.”

MacKay’s travels highlight why he won a major victory yesterday against the star-studded Unity08 in the below-the-radar contest to see which budding political organization would be in the best position to offer their nomination to Michael Bloomberg if the mayor decides to run for president.

Yesterday, officials of Unity08 announced they were suspending their ballot access operation—which was successful only in Florida and Mississippi so far - and losing two of their founding members, Doug Bailey and Jerry Rafshoon.

In a public letter, the board of directors of Unity08 blamed their stunted growth on a Federal Elections Commission decision limiting their contributions to $5,000, instead of the $25,000 allowed for the Republican and Democratic Parties.

“We were caught in a peculiar catch-22,” the Unity08 directors Bob Bingham, Angus King, Peter Ackerman, Zach Clayton and Lindsey Ullman wrote. “’[W]e wanted to break the dependence on big money by getting lots of small contributions from millions of members, but needed some up-front big money to help generate the millions of members to make the small contributions. And the FEC (in effect, an arm of the parties) didn’t let that happen.”

The letter went on to acknowledge that there is no room for more than one third-party candidate in the race this year. “Mayor Bloomberg seems poised to run on his own (and the fact is that two independent candidacies wouldn’t work) if the parties leave the sensible center open,” wrote the Unity08 directors in what was, in essence, their concession speech.

MacKay agrees.

“If he decides to run, I don’t care if God comes out of the sky, we’re going with Bloomberg,” he said.

Departing Unity08 founders Baily and Rafshoon agree too. The Unity08 directors said the pair were heading to a “a committee forming to draft Mayor Bloomberg should the circumstances seem right.”

While Unity08 was collapsing, MacKay was building his nationwide campaign.

The Virginia Independent Greens announced yesterday they agreed to become an affiliate of the Independence of Party of America (IPOA), making them the second statewide group in the country to do so. The Pennsylvania Reform Party affiliated with the IPOA earlier this year, and the Independence Party in Minnesota - which elected a governor there in 1998 - will vote on whether to affiliate on January 26.

MacKay said his job isn’t to find a candidate, but rather, to see how a third-party presidential candidate can get on the ballot nationwide.

“Every state has different laws,“ MacKay said. “Unity08 was trying to start from scratch. What I’m doing is I’m doing is taking people that have already done it locally, and weeding through.”

While both parties, Unity08 and the IPOA, prefer Bloomberg as their candidate, the two groups would have been trying to achieve different goals with the billionaire mayor’s candidacy.

Unity08 hoped its open nominating process - held online - would attract voters left out of the hyper-partisan primary process and lead to a fusion ticket of one Democrat and one Republican. “The past year has taught us that it’s tough to rally millions to a process, as opposed to a candidate or an issue,” Unity08 directors acknowledged.

The IPOA wanted to establish a permanent third party entity in as many states as possible, coalescing around the principles of voter reform, and led by a serious White House contender. MacKay said many states grant permanent ballot access to parties on whose line a certain number of votes are cast. So, while an IPOA candidate may not get enough support in a given state to win any electoral college votes there, that candidate could garner enough votes to establish an IPOA Party in that state.

“In Minnesota, they need a statewide candidate in every four-year span to get 5 percent of the vote. That’s what their threshold is” MacKay said. In Virginia, the threshold is 10 percent, he said.

“We’re hitting on all cylinders right now,” MacKay said. “All we need is a candidate.”

Burning issue: Can Boren keep the fire stoked?

The Oklahoma Editorial
Burning issue:
Can Boren keep the fire stoked?

CALL it Electoral College Syndrome (ECS). It's a condition affecting many Americans just before and just after a presidential election.

They suffer from the indignity of having a president chosen by a plurality of voters rather than a majority — something that happened twice with Bill Clinton — or having a president lose the popular vote but win the Electoral College vote — something that happened with George W. Bush.

The politicians who gathered in Norman on Monday may experience a condition related to ECS. They sounded all the right notes in appealing for national unity. This happens when the country is thought to be too divided — as it has been during the Clinton and Bush presidencies.

Then they go their separate ways and hope someone pays attention to them after "normalcy” returns.

With Electoral College Syndrome, calls for elimination or reform of the Electoral College system are oft-heard. These symptoms seem to disappear about the time a new president is sworn in, only to resurface almost four years later.

Calls for national unity this year are backed by a genuine desire for more civility. Coming as it did between the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, the Norman gathering didn't seem to get much notice.

If the effort ends here — as the effort to change the Electoral College systems ends as quickly as it begins — little will have been accomplished. If University of Oklahoma President David Boren and his co-enthusiasts for civility are determined to keep this fire burning, they must keep putting fuel on the flames.

Already the impression has been made that the effort was bipartisan in name only, that this was a gathering of moderate and liberals and exclusive of conservatives.

People say they want unity just as they say they don't like negative campaign ads. That negative ads keep coming is a testament to their effectiveness rather than their popularity.

People say they want to elect a president directly rather than officially voting only for a college of electors, who actually choose the president. Yet a system that's served this country for so long is stubbornly resistant to change, especially when demand for change wanes so quickly.

Variants of Electoral College Syndrome are easy to spot and include the recent clamor for burying power lines. This happens each time major storms leave people in the dark for an extended time. The further we get from the storm, though, the quieter the clamor becomes.

Boren's challenge is to sustain interest in his mission of restoring civility to American public life. "Hear our plea! Bring us together!” was Boren's appeal.

Perhaps a place to start is a rollback of bipartisan campaign finance "reform” that's led to the development of groups that are among the most divisive in history.

CNN Implies Bloomberg Is a Republican

CNN Implies Bloomberg
Is a Republican
By Bill Hobbs | January 10, 2008 - 08:21 ET

A new CNN report on New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's quiet "research effort" to assess a possible presidential bid as an independent, is cleverly written to imply that Bloomberg is a dissatisfied Republican.

Bloomberg, a lifelong member of the Democratic Party, decided to run for mayor as a member of the Republican Party ticket.

Bloomberg, a former Democrat who was elected to the mayor's office as a Republican, joined a panel of moderate current and former lawmakers earlier this week at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. The group, made up of both Democrats and Republicans, called for a return to bipartisanship in government.

"What has changed is that people have stopped working together," Bloomberg said at the Monday gathering. "Government is dysfunctional. There is no collaboration and congeniality. There is no working together and 'Let's do what's right for the country.' There is no accountability today ... no willingness to focus on big ideas."

Bloomberg may have been elected on the Republican ticket in 2001, but he isn't a Republican. He's a lifelong liberal Democrat who only temporarily called himself a Republican in running for mayor of New York.

His 2006 mayoral re-election bid was endorsed by many prominent New York Democrats, including former Democratic Mayor Ed Koch, former Democratic governor Hugh Carey, former Democratic City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, his son, Councilman Peter Vallone, Jr., former Democratic Congressman Floyd Flake (who had previously endorsed Bloomberg in 2001), and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.

On June 19, 2007, Bloomberg announced his decision to leave the Republican Party and be declared an independent. Policywise, he is much closer to the liberal wing of the Democratic Party than to the any part of the Republican Party. He's pro-abortion, avidly pro-gun control, anti-death penalty and publicly opposed the confirmation of John Roberts as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

Wikipedia summarizes his political positions thusly:

Bloomberg holds political positions which are generally centrist, drawing from both Democratic Party and Republican Party positions. He is socially liberal, supporting abortion rights, gay marriage, and normalization of the status of illegal immigrants, for example. Economically, he is moderate, supporting government involvement in issues such as public welfare and climate change, while being strongly in favor of free trade, pro-business, and describing himself as a fiscal conservative because he balanced the city's budget. Conservative groups have criticized this characterization because Bloomberg raised both taxes and spending significantly as mayor. On foreign policy and domestic security issues, he tends to be conservative, supporting the USA PATRIOT Act and opposing a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq.

Bloomberg is not a dissatisfied Republican thinking of an independent bid for the White House. He's a dissatisfied Democrat thinking of an independent bid for the White House. CNN got it wrong.

—Bill Hobbs is author of Who Is Fred Thompson, a blog-centric look at the presidential candidate.

Bloomberg will decide on White House bid by early March

Bloomberg will decide on
White House bid by early March

NEW YORK (CNN) -- New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg will decide by early March whether he will pursue an independent bid for the White House, a source close to the mayor told CNN.

The source, who is very familiar with the mayor's deliberations, said Bloomberg is assessing his chances in a potential bid for the presidency.

The source said the mayor -- who has been widely speculated as being interested in running for the White House as an independent -- has had data collected but hasn't started to analyze it yet.

CNN Senior Political Analyst Bill Schneider said it's possible a centrist candidate would have a chance in the 2008 presidential race.

"There's a market for someone who can bring the left and the right together, Democrats and Republicans, and form a workable governing coalition," Schneider said, "but it's going to be there only if the parties nominate candidates who can't reach to the center."

Schneidner said it made sense for Bloomberg to wait until "Super Tuesday," February 5, when nearly a dozen states will hold either primaries or caucuses. The nominees for both parties will probably be clear after those results, political pundits say.

"If the Democrats nominate Barack Obama, who has a lot of appeal to Republicans, and the Republicans nominate, say, John McCain, who in the past has appealed for Democrats, there's no room for Bloomberg, and he probably should hang it up," he said.

A Newsweek poll conducted October 31-November 1 placed support for Bloomberg at 11 percent when matched up in a general election with Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Democratic nominee, who received the support of 44 percent, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the Republican nominee, who received 38 percent.

When Obama was the Democratic nominee, the results changed little, with Bloomberg at 10 percent, Barack Obama at 43 percent and Giuliani at 39 percent.

Bloomberg, a former Democrat who was elected to the mayor's office as a Republican, joined a panel of moderate current and former lawmakers earlier this week at the University of Oklahoma in Norman.

The group, made up of Democrats and Republicans, called for bipartisanship in government.

"What has changed is that people have stopped working together," Bloomberg said at the Monday gathering. "Government is dysfunctional. There is no collaboration and congeniality. There is no working together and 'Let's do what's right for the country.' There is no accountability today ... no willingness to focus on big ideas."

Bloomberg, 65, was elected mayor of New York in 2001, two months after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, and re-elected in 2005.

A native of Medford, Massachusetts, with an MBA from Harvard Business School, Bloomberg became a billionaire, first working with Wall Street securities bank Salomon Brothers, then as founder of Bloomberg LP, a financial news and information service.

Michael Bloomberg polls voters on presidency

Michael Bloomberg
polls voters on presidency
By Tom Leonard in New York
Last Updated: 2:47am GMT 11/01/2008

Michael Bloomberg is researching the views of voters in all 50 American states as he contemplates an independent campaign for the White House.

The exhaustive data collection process started months ago and, when it has been analysed, will provide the 65-year-old billionaire New York mayor with enough information to decide whether to run for US president.

Despite repeated denials that he might stand, the depth of the research has been interpreted as a sign that he will run if the figures suggest he has a chance of winning.

Observers have noted that Mr Bloomberg's denials have been getting weaker. He now merely states that he is "not a candidate".

Doug Schoen, who ran Mr Bloomberg's voter research - known as microtargeting - for his two mayoral campaigns, said: "They want a hardheaded sense of their chances."

Mr Schoen, who no longer works for Mr Bloomberg, has argued in a new book, "Declaring Independence," that a third party candidate such as the mayor could upset the election.

He pointed out that while previous independent contenders such as George Wallace, John Anderson and H. Ross Perot faced difficulties in their campaign, Mr Bloomberg's estimated £5 billion fortune would eliminate such problems.

So far, the surprise outcomes of the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary have added urgency and strength to the Bloomberg operation, Mr Schoen said.

"The uncertainty in the nominating process on both sides makes it more likely that Mike Bloomberg will explore a candidacy," he said.

Microtargeting gathers information on individual voters, rather than voting groups, to tailor and tweak the campaign message, advertisements and overall theme.

Most of the data, which goes as far as the magazines a voter reads, already exists in commercial databases. It can then be analysed to determine the chance of each voter supporting an independent.

On Monday, Mr Bloomberg fuelled speculation of a White House bid after he took part in a bi-partisan summit in Oklahoma.

According to a poll not conducted by the Bloomberg camp, 52 per cent of New York City voters say he would make a good president but only 34 percent would vote for him.

The survey conducted by Quinnipiac University poll suggested that strong support for his governorship did not necessarily translate into enthusiasm for him as US president.

Bloomberg Drops Another Hint He Might Run

Bloomberg Drops Another Hint He Might Run
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg had a rapt audience on the steps of City Hall Thursday as he did what he loves to do most these days: hint that he might join the presidential race.

Some were admirers, some not -- the audience was a bipartisan group of over 40 Capitol Hill press secretaries taking a delegation trip (read: junket) to Manhattan.

Bloomberg's independent starpower as a potential third-party presidential candidate had -- perhaps now only briefly -- appeared to fade just days ago with the perceived surge for Sen. Barack Obama's Democratic presidential candidacy. But he sure didn't sound uninterested Thursday.

According to two press secretaries who were there, Bloomberg looked the crowd over and asked, "How many electoral college votes do you represent?"

Asked if that was a hint that he's getting in the race, Bloomberg just smiled, they said.


By Eric Pianin | January 10, 2008; 4:50 PM ET

Talk of Bloomberg-Hagel Ticket Returns

Talk of Bloomberg-Hagel Ticket Returns

Omaha, NE.- The talk of a Bloomberg-Hagel independent run for the White House refuses to go away.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now reportedly analyzing voters in all 50 states, checking his chances of winning in November.

And Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel's name continues to be linked with Bloomberg.

Speculation of a Bloomberg-Hagel ticket surfaced months ago, after a couple of low key, but high powered dinners between the two.

Now the speculation is back, and Senator Hagel is not stopping it.

Bloomberg continues to insist he's not running, telling reporters throughout the week that, "I am not a candidate." But he showed up at political meeting in Oklahomas this week where all the talk was about a 3rd party run.

University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato says that take Bloomberg is, "looking for an opening. Look he keeps denying it and then he keeps stoking the rumors."

Senator Chuck Hagel who also attended the Oklahoma meeting was asked if the 3rd party talk will continue. Hagel said. "Well sure this is not a one time meeting for this group. We are going to continue to meet."