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Bloomberg to help steer us towards pragmatism
Michael Bloomberg just wrote in the New York Times I’m Not Running for President, but …
I have watched this campaign unfold, and I am hopeful that the current campaigns can rise to the challenge by offering truly independent leadership. The most productive role that I can serve is to push them forward, by using the means at my disposal to promote a real and honest debate.
In the weeks and months ahead, I will continue to work to steer the national conversation away from partisanship and toward unity; away from ideology and toward common sense; away from sound bites and toward substance. And while I have always said I am not running for president, the race is too important to sit on the sidelines, and so I have changed my mind in one area. If a candidate takes an independent, nonpartisan approach — and embraces practical solutions that challenge party orthodoxy — I’ll join others in helping that candidate win the White House.
This could provoke a fascinating and welcome race to the center: Which candidate can articulate the most compelling agenda of trans-partisan policy. McCain has a good head start if he would only stop disavowing it.
But regardless of how brilliant the candidates are in crafting these solutions they will not go very far without a receptive Congress that also embraces trans-partisanship. And so I hope that the Mayor applies his renowned analysis to divining which candidates for Congress would also deserve his support. And, if he is inspired to stay the course, to promote Campaign and Election reforms that level the playing fields for pragmatic, trans-partisan candidates at all levels of government.
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5 Responses to “Bloomberg to help steer us towards pragmatism”
I wonder what Bloomberg means by this. Is it sort of a send off where he announces that he won't run and makes a token gesture that he will help support a moderate? Or is it a genuine proposal where he might come on board with someone in a serious way, using his considerable resources as a supportive outside party or consultant?
Or maybe it's an offer to be VP??
I shiver with anticipation to learn that answer.
My opinion is that the Republicans have tacked so far to the extreme right that they have in a sense pulled the Democrats into what would traditionally be called the political center.
Is there anything the Democrats support that is as extreme as Gitmo, waterboarding, retroactive telecom immunity, using the DOJ to go after political opponents, refusing to talk to our enemies, preemptive war with Iran, cutting regulation of food, etc.?
Yet here's a centrist who's critique of the current candidates repudiates most of the Democratic platform, not the Republican candidate's positions. Did anyone note what he criticized in his first paragraph? That the candidates are promising things they know they can't deliver, pretending they can bring jobs back with protectionism, pretending that education can be improved without testing, etc. Those are the Dems he's criticizing, so unless something changes it sounds to me that he's leaning toward McCain.
C Stanley,
Just goes to show, he isn't a centrist by any definition eh?