A billionaire thinks he can buy an election, after all, he's so much smarter than the rest of us.

NOBODY should be so rich that all he has left to buy is his government--or anyone else's.

This is a strong argument for increased progressive taxation.

Um, how is it that this is the first I've heard of this?!? I mean I've heard his name tossed around as in, "wouldn't that be interesting," but I never knew he was seriously considering it. Ack.

We can't place limits on achievement. If a person's goal is to make unlimited amounts of money, they have a right to pursue that goal without government waiting at the finish line with a club to take out their knees.

One can make a case for more progressive taxation, but if the goal is to keep people from becoming rich simply for the sake of keeping them from becoming rich, that's not right.

Bloomberg is more of an autocrat than Giuliani and a bigger fraud.

A few supposed Bloomberg strengths...

1) Global warming solved! - a few bold proposals but unabated development along NYC shores and zero infrastructure spending for flood abatement. All show, no go.

2) Schools improved! - (from the Daily Howler) Why had PS 159's fourth graders done so much better this year?[...]

WINERIP (10/5/05): How did she do it? New teachers? No, same teachers. New curriculum? No, same dual-language curriculum for a student body that is 96 percent Hispanic and poor (100 percent free lunches). New resources? Same.

So? ''The state test was easier,'' she said. Ms. Rosenstein, who has been principal 13 years and began teaching in 1974, says the 2005 state English test was unusually easy and the 2004 test unusually hard. ''I knew it the minute I opened the test booklets,'' she said.

Iraq'd! - Bloomberg donated millions to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, so many millions that it's now called the Bloomberg School of Public Health. Their most famous study? The Iraq Mortality Study that found the best estimate of excess Iraqi deaths to be 655,000 as of last July. Bloomberg's response? Silence and campaigning on behalf of Joe Lieberman.

Support teh heroes! - "On 14 August 2006, Governor George Pataki signed legislation ordering the city to pay increased amounts in death benefits for rescue workers or "first responders", such as FDNY and NYPD members who later died from illnesses such as cancer after working at the World Trade Center site. The mayor objected to this, arguing that the increased cost of $5 million to $10 million a year would be unduly burdensome for the city."

Bloomberg, Freedom of some Assembly! - "Mayor Bloomberg lied when he denied that politics played any part in his decision to deny protesters access to the Great Lawn in Central Park during the 2004 Republican Convention. The Bloomberg administration claimed to be "motivated by a concern for the condition of the expensively renovated Great Lawn or by law enforcement's ability to secure the crowd," even though documents produced in a lawsuit show that the police preferred to have protestors gathered together in that location."

Bloomberg is a kindler, gentler vile autocrat. I don't support term limits (or term extensions in the face of terrorist attack - something Rudy and Mikey both suggested) but thank god for my intellectual inconsistency. Good riddance Mayor Mike. You are teh suck.

"Polls thus far have shown a third-party Bloomberg bid would draw more Republican votes than Democratic ones."

Really? That's surprising. Can you provide a link? If that's the case now, I would expect that once Bloomberg's Republican-in-Name Only status sinks in, he would pull more from the Democrat, expecially in states like Ohio and PA.

"A Bloomberg entry would raise the specter of an unprecedented all New Yorker race, if Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani win their primaries..."

Not quite. The 1904 election pitted two New Yorkers against each other: Theodore Roosevelt and Alton B. Parker.

felix - Bloomberg is a RINO only if you disregard the massive donations he gives to the RNC, his civil liberties abuses, and his anti-democratic authoritarian governing philosophy. Like Bush, Bloomberg had only one 'accountability moment' - election. From that moment on Bloomberg's governing style has been autocrat, not democrat.

Just because you are pro-choice and don't hate gays doesn't mean you are a Democrat.

I feel there's genuine reason for concern that Bloomberg will peel away voters from the Democrats - not from the base, but from swing voters whose basic motivation is disgust with the Republicans rather than strong support for Dem policies. And (especially if Hillary isn't nominated) he'll threaten NY's electoral votes, which the Dems really need.

I wonder what's going on in Bloomberg's mind. He should know he can't actually win, so he must know he'll effectively decide the election by taking votes from one side or the other. I wonder whether he's thought about the likely effects of his candidacy.

pelvis ennui exorcism,Occidentalizes proneness sprints:nakedness?...