For those of you who may have thought 2008 was shaping up as a race between two major parties, think again. There is an outside chance that there may be a third big-name candidate :
(CBS) NEW YORK New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has always denied it, but CBS 2 has learned the details of a secret meeting, involving the mayor, to discuss a possible run for the White House.
“I am not running for president, for the record,” Bloomberg has consistently said publicly.
But behind the scenes, it’s a different story.
And Democrats should be particularly on edge with this news: it’s more likely he’ll siphon votes away from a Democratic candidate than a Republican one in 2008. MORE:
CBS 2 has learned the details of a private dinner for the mayor that was held at an apartment building on Manhattan’s Upper East Side last month. There, he spent the evening in serious discussions about the viability of a White House run.
Sources told CBS 2 Bloomberg brought three deputy mayors with him, and proceeded to talk through every angle of a presidential run. By the end, the group had zeroed in on his running as an independent in 2008. And, the sources said, he seemed intrigued.
The dinner was held at the home of Michael Steinhardt, a legendary Wall Street hedge fund manager and a Bloomberg friend. He brought along Al From, head of the Democratic Leadership Council, which played a part in Bill Clinton’s rise to power in 1992.
Sources said the man who put Bloomberg together with Steinhardt and From was New York City Schools Commissioner Joel Klein.
Aides to the mayor cautioned that he is still very skeptical about the idea of running. In fact, one source said that at the dinner Bloomberg asked, “How likely is a 5’7”-Jew-from-New-York billionaire who’s divorced and running as an independent to become president of the United States.
So it’s under consideration and the meeting was held with various high-powered political types there, including DLC’s Al From. And it sounds as if Bloomberg is the one being wooed.
Doesn’t the 2008 race seem more complicated all the time? And doesn’t the conventional wisdom (that 2008 is likely to be a good chance the Demmies will take the White House after 8 years of GOP rule) seem shakier as you read this — just as the conventional wisdom that the Democrats will take one or more houses of Congress seems shakier as new polls show the GOP slowly regaining ground?
ANOTHER VIEW: Read Jonathan Singer.
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.