Something Happening Here?

The mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, is thinking about running for President this year as an independent. Like every candidate does these days, he's going through the "exploratory" phase of his campaign meaning that he's trying to figure out if he has any chance to win. I don't think he'll run unless he feels like he's got a reasonable chance to win. This differentiates him from the last two, rather notorious,independent candidates, Poss Perot and Ralph Nader. Both of those guys had huge egos that needed massaging and both of them, inter alia, assured victory for the candidate who would have likely not won if they had stayed home, Clinton in 1992 and W Bush in 2000. Neither Perot or Nader had any chance of actually winning their election and, unless one or both of them are unusually delusional, a possibility too grim to contemplate, they knew it.

Bloomberg is different though. First off he's got more money by far than all the Republican and Democratic candidates combined and second of all he actually has some experience as an elected government official, to wit Mayor of New York. Of note is the fact that his regime has won plaudits from a broad spectrum of political commentators. His approach is to identify problems and apply practical solutions to them with little regard to whose political ox gets gored. From him you hear very little rhetoric about supposed social ills. He carries almost no political baggage. He seems to have a knack for understanding the problems of a lot of people, not just those of his class, or those belonging to groups that have supported his election. In other words we may be looking at a genuine breath of fresh air here.

He recently gave a de facto campaign speech wherein he criticized the Federal government's neglect of infrastructure over the past several decades, pointing out very effectively how our decaying infrastructure is already taking a toll on the economy that can only get worse if the neglect continues. He's right of course. We don't seem to fully appreciate the value of good infrastructure and instead squander our money on some pretty silly pork barrel project which are designed more to reward political contributors than serve us well.

In the 1950s we started the Interstate Highway Program and in the 1970s the Clean Water Program. Both were remarkably successful. But the infrastructure we built with these programs will not last forever and needs attention right now. Right now our airports are badly overcrowded, our rail system a relic in near ruins, and our ports falling behind. The need has become urgent. Go Bloomberg!