A Conspiracy of Silence
Now that Senator McCain's campaign is clearly imploding, commentators are offering various suggestions on why this has come to pass. What surprises me is that anyone thought he was a serious contender in the first place given that his support comes mostly from the mainstream press and not from the grassroots of the GOP.
Perhaps the most amazing thing is how long the media has given Senator McCain a free pass. When was the last time that you heard any reporter ask Senator McCain about his involvement in the
Keating 5? Have you
ever heard a reporter ask about this? So, Senator McCain gets caught with his hand in the cookie-jar and decides that the real problem is the First Amendment. Amazingly, the mainstream media not only allowed McCain to get away with this, they have actively supported him as someone who was cleaning-up campaign finance.
As a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy it grieves me to acknowledge that the two most prominent graduates to have entered national politics have been President Carter and Senator McCain.
At least we can also claim Roger
Staubach as a fellow graduate!
Bloomberg Can Win
There has been an interesting response among the mainstream press regarding the possibility of Mayor Bloomberg running for President. On the one hand, they seem to be enjoying the easy splashy news which prevents them from actually having to be journalists. On the other hand, there seems to be the universally held view that Bloomberg can't win. They are wrong, he can.
Many people seem to forget how close Ross Perot was to winning the first time he ran. Perot's idiosyncrasies, poorly run campaign, and lack of political experience sank him. Has the press noticed anything different about Mayor Bloomberg? Like Perot, Bloomberg has built one of the world's premier companies. Unlike Perot, he is in his second term as the Mayor of the most media intensive city in the world. If someone from outside of New York were to see the amount of Press coverage that Bloomberg currently gets - they might think that he already is President. Count on this: If Bloomberg runs - he will run a great campaign.
There is also this to consider: Americans are fed up with the two parties that we have. Several commentators have pointed out that the Republican base is far more dissatisfied with their potential candidates than the Democrats are. This is actually a plus for Bloomberg given how liberal he is. Why would liberals vote for Senator Clinton - when they can get the same policies with Bloomberg without the baggage.
Bloomberg is far too liberal to win Texas or Mississippi, but he is not too liberal to win the country. I suspect that a Bloomberg campaign would start with a big state strategy. He would need to win California, Florida, and New York. All three of these are quite plausible and together have 113 electoral votes. Next, I suspect that the campaign would try to win: Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon, Ohio and Michigan. All of which are possible wins for Bloomberg, although winning all five would, of course, be extremely difficult.
