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In this issue
March 16, 2010
Steven Emerson: Combating Lawfare
JWisdom.com How to perform a miracle with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair (4 minutes)
Anne Bayefsky: Behind Obama's Dangerous Overreaction on Israel
March 15, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Father's obligations toward minor children
JWisdom.com Moody, Grumpy, Irritable Children with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Judith Graham: Get the whole picture before a CT
March 12, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: You CAN have Heaven on Earth
JWisdom.com Manufacturing mediums with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (4 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: The march of the Red-Green brigades
March 11, 2010
Glenn Garvin: Conspiracy theories, why people believe them and how they spread
JWisdom.com For Yourself, Not By Yourself with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
The Kosher Gourmet by Linda Gassenheimer : Turn leftovers into tasty New England hash
Paul Richter: Biden promises 'viable Palestine' is in the offing
March 10, 2010
Paul Greenberg: Death Checks In
JWisdom.com How To Get A (Real) Life with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( EXTENDED EPISODE)
Paul Richter: Israel exerts soverign right to its capital as Biden looks on astounded
Richard A. Serrano: 'Jihad Jane' indictment alleges threat from within U.S.
March 9, 2010
Wesley Pruden: Joe's Israeli adventure
JWisdom.com Free To Be (Responsibly) You and Me! with Rabbi Naftali Brawer ( 8 MINUTES)
David G. Savage: Supreme Court to rule on free speech in case of soldier's funeral
March 8, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Make a fuss about those who cuss?
JWisdom.com Finding or Losing Yourself? Here's How! with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Steven Emerson: America must learn from the UK about the future of Islamist subversion
March 5, 2010
Rabbi Berel Wein: Golden Calf still with us --- except it has multiplied
JWisdom.com The Limits of Eternity with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Biden's lost cause
March 4, 2010
Alan M. Dershowitz: How About A Real Campaign Against Abuses?
JWisdom.com Using Things, Loving People with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff ( 7 MINUTES)
Jordan "Gorf" Gorfinkel's Everything's Relative
March 3, 2010
JWisdom.com Grasping The Name of Your Life Game with Rabbi Warren Goldstein ( 8 MINUTES)
The Kosher Gourmet by Marialisa Calta : A cowboy's recipes for really good grub
March 2, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Someone's there
Diane Toroian Keaggy : Have we misunderstood Michelangelo?
March 1, 2010
JWisdom.com Whole in One with Rabbi David Aaron ( 5 MINUTES)
Michael Muskal: Hillary meets with Israeli official, discusses gefilte fish dispute
Feb. 26, 2010
Rabbi Francis Nataf: The Megilla of Spring
JWisdom.com A Biblical Secret for a More Powerful You with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: When rhetoric rules the roost
Feb. 25, 2010
The Jewish Ethicist By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: When walking away from your mortgage is both economically sound and makes ethical sense
JWisdom.com The Second Most Important Question in Your Life with Rabbi Yehoshua Karsh ( 5 MINUTES)
Seema Mehta : U.S.-Israel relations raised in California's Senate race --- by conservatives
Feb. 24, 2010
Rabbi Avi Shafran: The gift of the ‘prayer bomber’
Steven Emerson: Why Religious Freedom Commission is under attack
Feb. 23, 2010
Dennis Prager: Government, Yes! The Divine and Parents, No!
JWisdom.com The Last Laugh of Enlightenment with Rabbi Yaakov Asher Sinclair ( 5 MINUTES)
Anne Applebaum: Prepare for war with Iran --- in case Israel strikes
Feb. 22, 2010
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Is it not refreshing Tiger Woods' career has crashed and burned so dramatically?
JWisdom.com Esther and the third Truth with Rabbi David Aaron ( 9 MINUTES)
Kelly Brewington: Going smoke-free may raise diabetes risk
Feb. 19, 2010
Rabbi David Aaron: Is the Divine beyond us or within us?
JWisdom.com Olympic Faith with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 MINUTES)
Caroline B. Glick: Israel and the West are perpetrators of a myth that endangers the Jewish State
Feb. 18, 2010
Cal Thomas: Who is Rashad Hussain?
JWisdom.com A Wedding Disaster to Remember with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein ( 3 MINUTES)
Feb. 17, 2010
JWisdom.com Think your life is messed up? with Rabbi David Aaron ( 11 MINUTES)
Greg Logan: 'Greatest Jewish sporting event of all time since David versus Goliath' may be postponed because of bar mitzvah
Feb. 16, 2010
Anya Martin : Boy's 'cerebral palsy' fixed with diet
JWisdom.com Feet On The Street Spirituality with Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 8 MINUTES)
Marty Peretz: Let Europe Mind Its Own Business. It Brings Nothing To The Table Save For Mischief
Feb. 15, 2010
Herb Geduld: Lincoln and the Jews
JWisdom.com Are Our Children Really Ours? with Rabbi Mordechai Becher ( 5 MINUTES)
Susan King: 'Wolf Man' reflected writer's wartime Jewish experience

Jewish World Review July 12, 2006 / 16 Tamuz, 5766

President Mike? Yes, Bloomberg can win

By Dick Morris


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | If Mike Bloomberg runs for president as an independent, he can win. Yes, not just hurt Hillary Clinton or the Republicans, but actually win the White House.


Obviously, he has his bank account in his favor. Like Ross Perot in 1992 and 1996, he wouldn't have to convince skeptical donors that a third-party candidate could succeed for the first time in American history. He can cut short the conversation by just writing a mega check.


But he can succeed where Perot failed, because he knows how to handle himself in the public spotlight.


Bloomberg's years as mayor have fully equipped him to handle the national press corps. He's been on stage 24/7 for his entire term in office and through two campaigns. That education makes it unlikely that he will implode with paranoia or be rattled by the antics of the party national committees, as Perot was.


The mayor has played in the biggest of leagues in front of the toughest of press and media — not to mention the most wary of electorates — and has come out in great shape. It is no mean feat to survive as a Republican mayor in a liberal, Democratic city. And Rudy was no easy act to follow.


By contrast, service as a senator or governor — particularly of a small state — doesn't prepare a candidate adequately for the national stage.


In the Senate, the media is largely absent except on those very rare occasions when great legislation hangs in the balance. A senator can attract attention when and where he chooses by making a statement or holding a media event, but unwanted, unsolicited attention - of the sort that drives presidential candidates crazy — is quite rare.


A governor usually doesn't face the intense media focus that a mayor or a presidential candidate must handle. His life is much more quiescent and, if he chooses, he can be nearly invisible except when the legislature is in session.


Also unlike Perot (whose impact was to make it impossible for the first President Bush to be re-elected), Bloomberg would draw equally from each of the two main parties


The mayor's strong anti-terror credentials and practical experience at keeping New York City safe from attack would be vastly reassuring to "security mom" voters. He has kept New York safe and even improved on Guiliani's extraordinarily low crime statistics. He has shown himself able to resist pressures for spending and taxes while keeping his budget balanced - and he's a strong advocate of charter schools and educational standards. All good Republican positions. Democrats, meanwhile, would find his pro-choice, pro-gun control, pro-gay rights, pro-affirmative action positions very attractive. His pro-city focus could attract large Democratic support, and he'd probably bring into his column the bluest of blue states - New York. Not that Bloomberg is the only one who can win as an independent in 2008. If Hillary gets the Democratic nomination and some right-winger like Virginia Sen. George Allen defeats John McCain or Rudy Giuliani for the GOP nod, the way will be wide open for a strong independent candidate.


Either McCain or Giuliani could run and win as an independent. Either one could raise the money. Giuliani, released from the deadly confines of a Republican primary, would find his liberal social views on abortion, guns, and gays to be an asset, not a fatal flaw. McCain's legendary independence on issues like tobacco regulation, tough corporate governance, campaign-finance reform, global warming, torture of terror suspects and immigration would no longer be seen as straying from GOP orthodoxy once he left the Republican primaries, but would become the basis for a very attractive campaign platform.


The fact is that any of these three men could win as an independent. Both parties seem hell-bent on nominating extremely vulnerable candidates who cater to their ideological peculiarities more than to the broad middle of the American electorate. As a result, the time is riper for victory by a third-party candidate than it has ever been in our nation's history.

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JWR contributor Dick Morris is author, most recently, of "Because He Could". (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) Comment by clicking here.



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