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Bloomberg: Democrats' Best Friend

by Ryan Sager
Fri, 6 Apr 2007 at 3:21 PM
updated Fri, 6 Apr 2007 at 3:35 PM

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Here at the Sun, we sometimes like to spend time thinking about fanciful 2008 presidential candidates. One who might make for quite an interesting third-party candidate is, of course, New York City's own Michael Bloomberg.

However, while conventional wisdom holds that he could be a spoiler for the Democrats — to the extent that there is a conventional wisdom regarding a potential candidacy that not many people take seriously at this point — the truth is he could be just the opposite.

A poll just out from Rasmussen takes a look at some potential 2008 matchups, and it finds that putting Mr. Bloomberg in the race actually seems to guarantee a Democratic victory...

Here's the breakdown, where Hillary Clinton is assumed to be the Democratic candidate:

Clinton-McCain v. Clinton-McCain-Bloomberg

Clinton: 47%
McCain: 46%

Clinton-Giuliani v. Clinton-Giuliani-Bloomberg

Clinton: 47%
Giuliani: 48%

Clinton: 46%
Giuliani: 37%
Bloomberg: 9%

Though Mr. Bloomberg is a Republican in name only, for the most part, he seems in these early trials to pull pretty much exclusively from the Republican candidate in the race.

Of course, this sort of early poll mostly just tests voters' openness to the idea of an independent, moderate candidate. Still, it's interesting that so many more Republicans are ready to jump ship than Democrats. If I had to venture a guess (and, as a political blogger, I guess I do have to), I'd say it's because Democrats feel like they can win in 2008, and Republicans are just casting about.

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