Bloomberg Bush?

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

So whom does one figure Mayor Bloomberg might, if he runs for president, have in mind for a running mate? It happens that we asked Hizzoner this very question Thursday evening when we encountered him at a book party he was hosting for President Reagan’s speechwriter, Peggy Noonan. We found him in an expansive mood — and well aware of the wheelbarrow full of editorials we’ve written urging him to throw his hat in the ring. He joked that he’d enter the race as soon as we did away with the Electoral College.

We took that to be a friendly riposte — and promised to get right on it. Then we asked him about a running mate. Here the mayor clammed up tighter than a lock in a rust bucket. So we’ll hazard a guess: Governor Jeb Bush. Just to underline the point, the mayor offered no hints. This is a pure, unadulterated, newspaperman’s guess. The more we think about it, though, the more the idea takes on a certain logic. It would, after all, solve a problem not only for Mr. Bloomberg (whose DNA stands for Democrat Not Always).

It would also solve a problem for the ex-governor of Florida. He may be the most decent man on the hustings. He’s a successful governor, son and brother of presidents. He can laugh off Donald Trump’s taunts, but he has to resent the aspersions on his wife and mother (grounds enough to break the GOP pledge). The outrageousness of Mr. Trump’s attacks on W.’s integrity has been well dealt with by the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. But what does Jeb Bush do if it starts to look like the GOP flag will go to Mr. Trump?

For a principled but moderate conservative like Mr. Bush, we could think of a lot worse exit strategies from a GOP primary than to go into a political partnership with a principled but moderate liberal like Mr. Bloomberg. They’re both high integrity individuals, flawed mainly by their interest in the details of policy (and, in respect of Mr. Bloomberg’s, a case of nanny-state-ism that makes Nurse Ratched look like Mother Theresa). If the center lane is going to be left open in the general election, a Bloomberg-Bush ticket could look to the ex-mayor like a billion-dollar-bet.


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