If Bloomberg spent $1 billion, would he do better or worse than the 19% Perot got?

[Herman Munster]

$1 billion is a shitload of money. He could outspend both parties combined by a 2:1 margin.

[flyarm]

1. pEROT DIDN'T SPEND MUCH OF HIS OWN MONEY ON HIS CAMPAIGN..

BIG DIFFERENCE

[MNDemNY]

2. quit yelling, please.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. But I like how he/she lowercase-tisized the P in Perot. n/t

[onenote]

3. who is his running mate?

I started a separate thread on this topic. I think that even with a billion dollars, a key for Bloomberg, who is essentially unknown, will be his VP pick. Both John Anderson and Ross Perot undermined their own independent campaigns with very weak VP picks. The trick for Bloomberg is finding someone who won't alienate or scare off voters.

[Freddie Stubbs]

21. Here is a picture of one of his potential runningmates

[Clark2008]

4. If he'd spend that $1 billion toward paying off the national debt,

he'd probably get a lot more votes and tons of free publicity.

[gravity]

12. $1 billion down, 8999 more to go

[whistle]

6. Is that what it will take to buy control of the United States $1.0 billion?

...The fascists must really really want total control of this country so bad they are willing to even become the highest bidder.

[Zynx]

11. Bloomberg is pretty damn far from being a fascist.

[BlueManDude]

7. worse - he has absolutely zero red state appeal. he's a northern centrist/liberal.

[Zynx]

10. Partisan disaffection is a national phenomenon. It is not isolated

to Blue America.

[BlueManDude]

17. Much of Perot's appeal was stylistic...

Former military, folksy straight talker with a twang.

Not a lot of folks in "flyover country" are gonna vote for liberal Jew from Manhattan.

[Fredda Weinberg]

8. He's enjoying the attention.

There are too many skeletons in a NYC mayor's closet to make a serious run. It's just the usual petty corruption, but writ large it never sells.

[yes2truth]

9. Bloomberg would do MUCH better than Perot

First of all, he's far more sophisticated. Second, if he's willing to spend a billion dollars, then he'll have plenty to spend on countering negative attacks on him, he'll be able to make strong attacks on his opponents, and being as media savvy as he is, he'll know how to make good use of the media to get his message out. He's already proven that he knows how to make a strong appeal to voters - by virtue of his "America's in big trouble" headline.

I think Mr. Bloomberg's candidacy could spell big trouble to Democrats AND Republicans.

[Thrill]

13. What if McCain was his running mate?

[onenote]

14. highly unlikely

McCain isn't about to take back seat to Bloomberg. And I don't think he'd abandon the repub party to run as an independent in any event. Anyone who knows McCain (and I've worked with a couple of people who previously served on his staff) knows that he's not a second banana kind of guy.

[TwilightGardener]

16. OK, McCain's a total whore, who probably regrets not running with Kerry in '04--

BUT, Bloomberg and McCain, I can't see happening--WAY too big of egos.

[BenDavid]

15. Makes no difference whether it

be his money or from donations. Those on the left and the independents will not vote in 08 as they did in 2000 for Nader. Ask someone that voted for Nader in 2000 how they like Bush because they sure put him in the White House. Especially all the Florida votes in got.....We tried to tell them a vote for Nader was a vote for Bush.....Just the same way this time the repubs will be saying, a vote for Bloomberg will be a vote for HRC....
I do thank you
Ben David

[sendero]

18. So nobody believes Bloomberg' assertion...

... that he is not running?

Well, fact is, I don't care. I don't think he will necessarily help either party in a big way.

And frankly, until someone can "educate" me, I fail to see in what way he would make a worse president than any of the front runners we have now from either party. Seriously.

[wyldwolf]

19. better.

There was a strong "anti-establishment" current running through American in the early 90s. That current seems a bit stronger now.

[HooptieWagon]

20. Depends who the other candidates are...

If the Republik candidate is percieved as a RWnut, and the Democratic candidate is a pro-IWR DLCer then Bloomberg could possibly garner as much as 40% of the popular vote. Would that translate into electoral votes? Who knows...