According to this story, former New York city Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously thinking of running for President as an independent. He was born in 1942, the same year Joseph Biden was born.
From the article cited, written by Todd Beamon:
Speculation increased Saturday that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is gearing up for an independent run for president.
Ian Bremmer, a consultant and Time magazine political columnist, raised the specter via Twitter:
Word from those that know: Mike Bloomberg now seriously considering Independent run.
Bremmer is president of Eurasia Group, a consulting firm established in 1998 with offices in New York, Washington, London and Tokyo. The message was re-tweeted nearly 300 times by late Saturday afternoon.
Bloomberg, 73, who left the Republican Party in 2007 to become an independent, was New York’s mayor 2002 to 2013.
He returned to managing his media company, Bloomberg L.P., after leaving Gracie Mansion and has advocated for strong gun-control laws and other liberal causes through his foundation.
News Corp.’s Rupert Murdoch last month took to Twitter to call on Bloomberg to run for president, saying that “it’s time” for the former mayor “to step into the ring.”
Scary to think that they could be two of the three major candidates for potus next year…and Hillary or Biden could be the third.
I am surprised that nobody (else) has commented on my “news” that Bloomberg publicly proposed that young blacks be denied ownership of guns. I could say, “Doesn’t that sound DISCRIMINATORY, guys?” Or, “Doesn’t that sound RACIST”, fellows?
Or do you think it never happened? Or maybe you WISH it had never happened!
Myself, I think Bloomberg is a flaming nutcase. But he actually did the world a service, to expose the hypocrisy of those who want to ban guns, as well as the hypocrisy of those who yell, “Black lives matter!” while obviously not caring about the thousands of black-on-black murders that occur every year in America.
If a conservative had made the same proposal, he would have been incessantly flailed in the (biased) news media. See: http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/bloomberg%E2%80%99s-latest-racist-comments-go-unreported-establishment-media
Like this article said, the biased news media ignores these inconvenient truths.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOaXTg3nAuY
It will be both good and bad for the LP in different ways.
Good because in some cases we can piggyback off higher paying petitions and get petitioners to carry ours too, with more opportunity to get them away from initiative petition packages in states, and reducing some of the pressure on the LP.
Bad because in some states petitioners can’t do more than one or signers can’t sign more than one or petition company bosses and middlemen don’t want to allow cooperation (illegal for independent contractors but happens anyway).
Good because the better financed candidates may open up access in some places with their attorneys, or bust open some deadlines or paperwork issues or other barriers which also apply to us.
Bad because voter confusion over which ones they signed and which ones they haven’t if not all petitioners are carrying all the petitions. And competition for locations to petition.
Good because it will make some media, and some voters, look at alternatives outside the duopoly and some of them will cover or discover us whereas they wouldn’t otherwise.
Bad because it eats up some of the anti-duopoly coverage, sentiment and votes that is not very ideological. Etc.
But not good for the Libertarian Party.
One thing is for sure if Bloomberg runs for President as an independent, and that is that it would be very good for the paid petition business, as he’d have to pay a lot of money to get on the ballot in all 50 states plus DC, and this would also have the effect of driving up pay rates on other petitions around the country. This would make mercenary petition circulators and coordinators very happy.
On about Feb 7, 2015, Bloomberg proposed prohibiting young blacks (under 30 years old, I think) from owning guns. ( http://www.newsmax.com/US/bloomberg-black-men-guns/2015/02/08/id/623514/ Google Bloomberg guns young blacks.)
I am not at all surprised that he would have THOUGHT this. I am VERY surprised that he would have PUBLICLY PROPOSED this!!
Naturally, for a few days, the blowback was quite fierce. For awhile, BloombergView was censoring references to this.
Note that this represented a battle between the “anti-guns” position of the liberals, and the “anti-discrimination” principles. In this case, the “anti-discrimination” position won out.
But if it is REALLY true that “black lives matter”, then they should be happy about such a proposal. Even if it embarrassed them that the vast majority of killings of blacks were by blacks themselves.
Hypocrisy.
He can do unto America as he has already done unto New York.
It’s times like this that I wish I drank big-gulp soft drinks.
I guess if you can’t manipulate other non-major party actors into making you a candidate (remember Unity ’08 everyone?) I guess that leaves actually jumping in and doing it yourself doesn’t it?
If Trump can get off the pot I supposed Bloomberg can too.
Excellent idea! He will soak up the “nutty wacky” vote!