'NY Sun' Keeps Pushing Bloomberg for President -- Despite 'Skepticism'

By: E&P Staff The New York daily, The Sun, carries a heading right over its logo today: "The Logic of Bloomberg" -- An Editorial Reply to the Wall Street Journal." Inside the paper (which previously demanded that Dick Cheney run for president this year) cites not just the Journal but other outlets that expressed doubts about its backing for a race for the White House by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, including a Commentary web slam at the "frivolous" nature of this.

The editorial goes on to say: "Seems to us that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans this season are running on a pro-growth platform on immigration and tort reform of the sort that Mr. Bloomberg sketched in the Wall Street Journal and that the Journal's own editorial columns have championed for decades. If Senator McCain emerges as the Republican nominee things may be different, but Governors Huckabee and Romney and even Mayor Giuliani, who had as mayor been one of the most eloquent advocates of immigration, have turned needlessly against a pro-growth immigration policy in the primary season."

The whole editorial is up at www.nysun.com. Here is an excerpt.
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As for the electoral college math, it's pretty simple. Mr. Bloomberg takes his home state of New York (31 electoral votes). He takes his original home state of Massachusetts, where his mother still lives, and which will understand Mr. Bloomberg as a William Weld, liberal on social issues but tough on crime and spending type (12 electoral votes). He takes Florida, to which his daughter has ties and which has 27 electoral votes; he does it on his immigration stance, support from elderly Jewish voters in Broward and Palm Beach counties, and a surprise endorsement from Governor Jeb Bush, who has worked with Mr. Bloomberg ? and his education chancellor, Joel Klein ? on education issues. He takes California, with its 55 electoral votes, on the strength of an endorsement from independent-minded Governor Schwarzenegger.

It wouldn't surprise us were Mr. Bloomberg able to pick up New Jersey, with its 15 electoral votes, on the strength of the spillover of his reputation as a New York mayor across the Hudson. He picks up Connecticut and its seven electoral votes on the strength of an endorsement from Senator Lieberman and more spillover from the New York press and broadcast market. He picks up Pennsylvania, with 21 electoral votes, on the strength of an endorsement from Senator Specter and strong support in the Philadelphia Main Line suburbs. He picks up the new technology belt of Virginia (13), Washington state (11), Georgia (15) and North Carolina (15), on the strength of his accomplishments as a technology entrepreneur. He picks up Minnesota (10), which elected an independent, Jesse Ventura, as governor a few years back.

Texas's 34 electoral votes, on the basis of the immigration issue and the tech belt around Austin ? and the endorsement of Ross Perot ? would bring Mr. Bloomberg to a total of 266. Arizona and its 10 electoral votes put Mr. Bloomberg over the top on the strength of Mr. Bloomberg's choice of Senator McCain as his running mate (a match made by Henry Kissinger) after Mr. McCain loses the Republican presidential nomination to Governor Huckabee. And that doesn't even take into account Maine, Colorado, or Tennessee, all of which are winnable for Mr. Bloomberg.

This may be overly rosy, even improbable, but it's no more improbable than the prospects of the other candidates who've been mauling each other in the cornfields of Iowa. We have not endorsed Mr. Bloomberg, just encouraged him to run, and we can see elements to admire in many of the candidates on the Republican side, particularly Mayor Giuliani and Governor Romney, if one can get past their pandering at the moment on immigration, and Senator McCain, if one can get past his assault on the First Amendment via a law that bears his name and regulates campaign speech.