Jan. 7th Unity Conference May Determine if Bloomberg Runs and with whom....

[annie1]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bloomberg30dec30,1,2314771.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

WASHINGTON -- New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a potential independent candidate for president, has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, who will join him in challenging the major-party contenders to spell out their plans for forming a "government of national unity" to end gridlock in Washington.

Others who will be at the Jan. 7 session at the University of Oklahoma say that if the likely nominees of the two major parties do not pledge to "go beyond tokenism" in building an administration that seeks national consensus, they will be prepared to back Bloomberg or someone else in a third-party presidential campaign.

The meeting will include Democrats Sam Nunn, Charles S. Robb, David L. Boren and Gary Hart, all former senators; and, on the GOP side, Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, former Republican National Committee Chairman Bill Brock, former Sen. John Danforth, and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman.

"It is not a gathering to urge any one person to run for president, or to say there necessarily ought to be an independent option," said the meeting's host, university President Boren. "But if we don't see a refocusing of the campaign on a bipartisan approach, I would feel I would want to encourage an independent candidacy."

The group could muster the financial and political firepower. Others who have indicated that they will attend include former GOP Sen. William S. Cohen, who was Defense secretary in the Clinton administration; former Democratic Sens. Alan J. Dixon and Bob Graham; former GOP Rep. Jim Leach; Susan Eisenhower, a political consultant and granddaughter of former President Eisenhower; David M. Abshire, president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency; and former U.N. Ambassador Edward J. Perkins.

Bloomberg, a former Democrat who was elected mayor of New York as a Republican, left the GOP this past summer to become an independent.

While disclaiming any plan to run for president in 2008, he has continued to fuel speculation by traveling widely and speaking out on domestic and international issues."

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Wolf is talking about a bloomberg run a lot today, and basically said the rumor is he runs if Hil gets the nom. Then he asked Forbes, Forbes said depends on who wins the nom, but he believes Bloom will run.

[aquart]

1. So the next Ross Perot rears his billionaire head.

Gonna ruin the country because he doesn't know what to do with himself if he's not in charge.

He wants national unity? FINE. Let's see a full-page ad in major newspapers signed by a majority of the Republican Party running for office and in office that they will seek out and prosecute and JAIL UPON CONVICTION every member of their own party who may have committed a crime during the last seven years.
Show me that.

THAT's the unity I want to see.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

2. What I find interesting is that he's passing up Unity08

which is touted as being a grassroots (or at least netroots) organization dedicated to bipartisanship. They've already got an organization in place to get their slate on the ballots in all 50 states; the sticking point for Bloomberg may be that the candidates have to say they will abide by a platform created by and voted on by the people. Frankly, this smells like a corporate move more than anything else. I don't think either third party is going to do much to sway this election, though.

[annie1]

5. i think it will have a huge effect. Ross Perot got a huge %...

of votes, iirc, almost 15/20%, and he was a loner. Bloomberg has more clout, is currently a very popular mayor of NYC, much more well known, is socially liberal and is much more organized. And the people will be in the meeting are respected people. Dunno, could be a big deal. But then again, hil might just lose this nom, which means Bloom may not run.

[aquart]

10. Christy (I didn't know the air was bad) Whitman is respected?

He should be ashamed to walk on the same side of the street as her.

[annie1]

11. yeah, i can't believe she's invited! *barf*

[cali]

3. Fuck Bloomberg.

Fuck the rest of them. That's what they're trying to do to us. And fuck any billionaire asshole who wants to massage his giant ego in the oval office. Fuck them.

[1corona4u]

4. I agree!!!!!

Bastards.

[cali]

7. They all make me sick

I think they want to throw it to the pukes. They know without doing something, the next president will be a dem.

[annie1]

8. =)

[IndianaGreen]

6. Democratic and GOP establishments are terrified of John Edwards becoming Democratic nominee

They all expected the Democratic nominee to win the Presidency in 2008. They were quite comfortable with having their corporate "girl" Hillary as the next President. They weren't quite sure about Obama, but the phalanx of former Clintonian advisers that surrounds him was a safeguard against any un-orthodox policies. Edwards was an entirely different matter! As the middle aged women that composed the Des Moines Register editorial board said in their endorsement of Hillary, Edwards was too unfriendly to corporations.

Where were the likes of former Senators Boren, Nunn, Cohen, and others during the 7-years of the Bush dictatorship? None of them have said anything about the illegal and criminal war in Iraq, the loss of liberties at home, and the massive human rights violations abroad. Now they all come with the same bullshit spin that was used when a group of so-called moderates in the Us Senate got together to block any progressive filibuster of Bush's federal bench appointments.

They are all snake oil salesmen!

[TwilightGardener]

9. Pretty silly to think that they're all doing this because they're afraid

of a guy that's been running third in national polls. Come on now.

[IndianaGreen]

18. Their "girl" Hillary is trailing in Iowa and New Hampshire.

This is the same ideological crowd that sabotaged George McGovern in 1972.

They want to protect their class interests at all costs.

[aquart]

13. "Middle-aged women"? "Corporate 'girl'"?

But you aren't a sexist pig so those remarks shouldn't bother me.

Right?

[IndianaGreen]

16. The only man on the editorial board did not vote

The women are all boomers, and they banded together with the one boomer woman running. They critized Edwards for being too negative on the corporations.

My post was right on target!

[annie1]

14. It's Hillary Bloom wants to run against. They know the pubs are bitter....

against her. they know the pubs might win against her. they know there will be many people who will be the anti-hil vote, and they may not think she's a very good campaigner, and she is the one who will most likely determine if he runs. the rumor is that he runs if hil wins the nom. Not because he doesn't like her mind you, because he does, but because he thinks she can be beaten.

[IndianaGreen]

17. Hillary is their "girl." She is as much a war hawk as Sam Nunn, and just as anti-LGBT.

Remember that it was Nunn who made the biggest fuzz about gays in the military, and he got Bill Clinton to go for "Don't Ask-Don't Tell."

Hillary claims she was co-President, therefore she shares with her husband Bill on all the bad things he did.

[cali]

15. LOL!

As always, you're proof that women can be viciously sexist In addition, the boring old fear meme is nonsense. If you think the corporate world is afraid of JE, you don't know jackshit about the people that run it. They'll do just fine under JE or anyone else.

[OHdem10]

12. This Conference: Center For Strategic Interenational Studies

Cohen, Nunn---This is not about any Candidate or Promotion of
Any Candidate.

Strategic International Studies==Foreign Affairs.

The people gathered will be there to explore ways to bring
a broken(ours) country out of the ditch and back to its
rightful place in the world.

As usual the WAPO has woven some wishful thinking. Broder
will do or say anything if he thinks it helps GOP.
WAPo had better watch their credibilty.

Yes this group is concerned about the division in the
country.

Yes they suffer the awful illusion there is this magical
Center. If they continue this wrongheaded thinking
they will be unsuccessful.

The only way change can take place is to recogniae
there is a Left and there is a Right. In every discussion
the Right will have to give up something and the Left
will give up something. This is called Compromise.
If they continue to force the Democrats to Right and
therefore run a Center Right Government only unrest over\
time will develop. This country has not seen the Center
in years.

For Bloomberg to run he needs a base. As an elitist
there will be no voters clammoring to vote for him.

The People at this conference plainly state this not
about Bloomberg. It is about Policy. (Esp. Foreign Policy_

[madfloridian]

19. Those Democrats listed...weren't they mostly founders of the DLC?

I would have to do some research. But I think most were.

I am so tired of trying to think as one with the nutcases who are in this administration.

No bipartisanship.

[IndianaGreen]

20. They are all DLC, except for Cohen, and they all fear Edwards

who they see as a loose canon that the establishment cannot control.

Hillary is their "girl."

[Inuca]

21. Cohen is a republican n/t