With a pitch like this, Bloomberg could well tap into some disgruntled voters from both parties (and from no party):
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who became an independent last week, showed his non-partisan colors Wednesday by criticizing both political parties.
Bloomberg, who left the GOP and is asked almost daily about running for president, said Wednesday that neither the Republican nor Democratic Party “stands for anything.”
“There isn’t any philosophy” for either party, he said after a speech on improving public schools.
Bloomberg has repeatedly expressed frustration with Congress, saying lawmakers favor partisanship over progress and have failed to deal with immigration, health care or education.
“Party discipline requires you to make decisions based on what’s good for the party rather than what the merits are of the piece of legislation before you,” he said.
This is an argument could hit a nerve in some: that both political parties are now less hotbeds of ideas and principles than bedpans of political expediency. The idealism and principles are often finessed when the actual “crunch” votes are taken (and when the Presidential candidates from each party get through pitching themselves to more ideological primary voters and then attempt to inch towards offering a broader appeal once the general campaign begins).
The Bloomberg boomlet is definitely one to watch — but so is a man named Ralph Nader. What would Bloomberg AND Nader do to a race?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.