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Dec. 3, 2008
Steven Emerson: Yes, the terrorists are winning
Don Terry: Lifetime, no see
Dec. 2, 2008
Melanie Phillips: The Mumbai atrocity is a wake-up call for a frighteningly unprepared world
Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report: Strategic Motivations for the Mumbai Attack
Dec. 1, 2008
Max Freidlander, as told to Jacklyn C. Wadler: India Inkings
Mark Steyn: Whodunit!?
Nov. 28, 2008
Rabbi Ahron Rapps: An evil seed that didn't have to be
Melanie Phillips: Carpe diem --- or can we all relax now?
Nov. 26, 2008
Michael Feldberg: Meet the Orthodox Jew who laid groundwork for scientific development of ordnance that undergirds America's current world leadership
Andrea Simantov:
Shades of life
Nov. 25, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Getting Emotional For Influence
The Kosher Gourmet
by Ethel G. Hofman : Thanksiving feast!
Nov. 24, 2008
Rabbi S. Binyomin Ginsberg: 'I just Became a grandchild!'
Barry Rubin: Don't flatter your enemies, protect your friends
Nov. 21, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: Money matters?
Caroline B. Glick:
Civilization walks the plank
Nov. 20, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Bronfman's blindness
The Kosher Gourmet
By Linda Gassenheimer: Portobellos add a hearty flavor to pasta with pesto
Nov, 19, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Spread the wealth? Jewish tradition and income equality
Elliot B. Gertel:
'Mad Men': Tackling prejudices or reinforcing them?
Nov, 18, 2008
Dr. Debby Schwarz Hirschhorn: The End of the Age of Reason
Jonathan Tobin: Does Barack + Bibi = Disaster?
Nov, 17, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The End of the Age of Reason
Diana West: Gulling Americans into making terror legit?
Nov, 14, 2008
Rabbi A. Henach Leibowitz: The Power of Spiritual Inertia
Caroline B. Glick: The perils ahead
Nov, 13, 2008
Stratfor Intelligence Briefing: How Bush and Obama together could change the Middle East dynamic
The Kosher Gourmet
by JeanMarie Brownson: Sweet and savory, crispy and meltingly tender bestilla
Nov, 12, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : Tyrannical Co-Workers
Michael Doyle: High Court to consider today donated monuments that may have religious messages in public parks
Nov, 11, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Will Obama stop government officials considering institutionalizing financial jihad?
Jonathan Tobin: They Will Decide Their Own Fate
Nov, 10, 2008
Rabbi Avi Shafran: $8 billion, modern-day Tower of Babel being built?
Barry Rubin: A letter to the president-elect from a Middle East realist
Nov, 7, 2008
Rabbi Francis Nataf: Of Children and Immortality
Caroline B. Glick: Livni's Obama strategy
Nov, 6, 2008
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: How I tricked a classroom of apathetic students into grasping the fallacy of moral relativism
The Kosher Gourmet
By Gina Kim: Tips for making the perfect soup --- includes recipes
Nov, 5, 2008
The Jewish Ethicist
By Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Destitute Debtors
Bruce Weinstein: 'Religulos': Bad title,even worse movie
Nov, 4, 2008
Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.: Treasury Dept. submits to Shariah law
Frida Ghitis: A surprise for Obama in the Middle East
Nov, 3, 2008
Jonathan Rosenblum: Who says Jews are Smart?
Jonathan Tobin:
Was He Wrong About Everything?
March 22, 2007
J-Rhythms with Avraham Rosenblum: JWR's cutting-edge music program showcasing performers -- singers, song writers, musicians, and bands -- who learn and live the Torah lifestyle (OUR NEWEST IGODCAST !)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)
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Jewish World Review
Feb. 18, 2008
12 Adar I 5768
Bloomberg's one L of a candidate
By
Michael Goodwin
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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
To most political observers, the near-certainty that John McCain will be the Republican nominee ends any prospects for a Michael Bloomberg candidacy as an independent. Alas, Bloomberg begs to differ. He reportedly sees the current state of play as another opening for his presidential dreams.
After telling friends he believes Hillary Clinton will be her party's nominee, Bloomberg said at a recent event, "Hillary should pray I get in the race because that would help her," according to a source quoted in the New York Daily News gossip column Rush & Molloy.
Bloomberg, whose office would neither confirm nor deny he made the remarks, is half-right in his overview of the campaign. The odds have shifted to Clinton's favor since Barack Obama failed to knock her out on Super Tuesday. It's the second time Obama had her down but couldn't finish her. She was reeling after his win in Iowa, but her tears saved her in New Hampshire.
Even after all he has achieved, Obama, as the rookie running against the party's Queen Mum, still carries the burden of proving he can dethrone Clinton. If the virtual tie in delegates holds, it will be broken in Clinton's favor by the establishment roster of super delegates.
That would set up the fall showdown between Clinton and McCain that Bloomberg envisions. So far, so good. It's when the mayor says his running would help Clinton that I start to wonder what Bloomy is smoking.
The far more likely scenario is that Bloomberg would take most of his votes from Clinton and hand an otherwise close election to McCain.
The logic is political. Bloomberg, a former Democrat and a former Republican, fancies himself a center-right moderate who, like McCain, could appeal to independents as well as most of the Republican base. But seen through the national prism, Bloomberg's self-image would be shredded by his gun-control, pro-gay marriage, tax-and-spend, big-government record as mayor.
He's not only liberal. He's far more liberal than Clinton or Obama. Think Ralph Nader with money.
Certainly that's how McCain's team would paint Bloomberg. Take away his name, list his positions and the portrait emerges of a left-wing Democrat. Throw in odds and ends he pays poor kids to show up for school tests and families to visit doctors and you have a radical like Michael Moore.
Then there's Iraq. Bloomberg has ducked it as though it's beneath him to take a position. As a pundit said on another topic, how many delegates are there in the state of denial?
Of course, Bloomberg wouldn't be a potted-plant as a candidate. Even as he tells ordinary New Yorkers he's not running, he tells his friends he'd spend $1 billion. Most of it would go for TV ads, which would emphasize his real accomplishments as mayor cooling race relations and a host of health-care initiatives. With Dublin bars and Paris restaurants following New York's lead in snuffing out smoking, he's made a global difference. But his going so far as to force restaurant calorie counts and a ban on certain cooking ingredients mark him as a nanny-state liberal.
And don't forget the Electoral College. No poll I've seen shows Bloomberg winning a single state vote even New York. And that's after a drumbeat from Bloomberg's paid backers and propagandalike gushing in Newsweek and Time magazines.
In the end, Bloomberg looks doomed to suffer the fate of all independent White House runs. The vast bulk of voters abandon them to back a major party candidate with a chance of winning.
That's already the rub to the mayor's grand plan.
An online petition effort, draftbloomberg.com, had a mere 8,054 signatures as of Friday afternoon. Only 1,514 had been added in the past week. Apparently there still are some things money can't buy.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and the media consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Michael Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
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