Word: bloomberg
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Most people assumed that for a long time now. Bloomberg has often been described as a RINO, a Republican In Name Only, and that was true until yesterday, too. He supports gay marriage, abortion rights and gun control, but not the death penalty; he raised property taxes 18% to deal with a deficit, the ultimate G.O.P. sin. He did trim spending as well, an activity formerly associated with Republicans, and he's tilted towards conservative approaches on welfare, homelessness, and "social promotion" in education; he's a capitalist at heart, revered in the business community. But his citywide bans...
...Still, it's worth noting that in 1997 Bloomberg wrote that he had no plans to run for anything. And that he recently launched a red-white-and-blue website that looks suspiciously like a candidate website. And that his former campaign manager, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey, has been spinning $500 million Bloomberg-for-President scenarios for months; in a recent interview, one former Bloomberg aide described Sheekey's current job as "Deputy Mayor for Running for President." And that over the last couple of days Bloomberg has delivered what sounded a lot like stump speeches, deriding Washington...
...while the billionaire Mayor has not yet decided for certain that he will run, his becoming an independent now is part of his plan to make sure that the option is there. In order to collect the signatures to get on the ballot in various states as an independent, Bloomberg has to be officially "unaffiliated...
...other words, Bloomberg was a partisan to the extent that it was useful to him. Now that it is no longer useful to him, he's no longer a partisan. He can qualify for the Presidential ballot as an independent; he can also serve in a Democratic or Republican administration (or on a Democratic or Republican ticket) as an independent. And even if he just serves out his term and returns to the private sector, there's now at least a possibility that the dog catcher candidates will leave him alone...
...national political press corps has plenty of reasons to be fascinated by the prospect of (newly) independent New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg running for President next year...