Election 2008: Subway Series?

This is fascinating!

Mike Bloomberg has left the Republican Party. But, he hasn't joined the Democratic Party. He's officially Independent of both.

And the analysis seems to be that despite his protestations to the contrary, he's gearing up for a run for President.

Wow!

Longtime readers of SingleTails may recall that politically speaking, I call myself a conservative. When I lived in NYC, I didn't have a hard time thinking of myself as a Republican. But that's because being a Democrat in NYC is pretty much like being a Communist anywhere else in the Globe. The Rockefeller Republicans I met and work with always seemed to me to have the right idea. In the battle between individual liberty and interventionist government, they came down on the side of every American's right to the idiosyncratic approach to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Living in the City during the events of September 11, 2001 got me on board with a more muscular foreign policy for the country. Because of the thinking of this guy and the firmly held opinions of a certain kinkster who also happened to be part of the weapons inspection team that was sent in, I supported going into Iraq to take out those weapons of mass destruction.

But so much has changed, huh?

About the time that U.S. casualties in Iraq topped 3,000, I decided that I could never, ever again in my life vote Republican. Not even for dog catcher. Or Plumstead Township Tax Collector or whatever. I've voted in every election--even those wacky off-year elections--since my eighteenth birthday, and it's always been a split ticket. But for the rest of my life, I vowed never to support the party that knowingly lied to me, uselessly threw away thousands of lives of men and women in the armed forces, and bankrupted the country.

Which made me think of Mike Bloomberg.

Would this mean that if I had to vote in an election which was a repeat of the 2001 NYC Mayoral match-up between Mike Bloomberg and Mark Green (a man I despise with every fiber of my being), that I'd be voting for that soulless reptile? Or would I just vote "None Of The Above?"

Well, Mike Bloomberg just relieved me of that burden.

I think, Election 2008-wise, I'm still a Bill Richardson guy. But I could easily be tugged into the Bloomberg for President camp.

But wait a minute...

Clinton, Giuliani, Bloomberg... American goes to the polls in November, 2008, and those are the choices?

Like it couldn't happen?

What would that be like?

America hates New York City. You were all willing to let go of that for a little while when the World Trade Center towers came down, but just for a little while. In any considered political arrangement, New York would be a free city, like Danzig in the early 20th Century. NYC is so not America. And America knows this.

So what would it be like having the election for President of That Other Country Across The Hudson be a race between three people associated with Gotham?

Back in 2000, when the we were heading towards a match-up of the Yankees and the Mets in the World Series, I was ecstatic. But I remember going on and on about it in a gay-baseball chat room on AOL, being such a tantalizing match-up, signal event in baseball history and all that, and a guy from Arizona chimed in with, "Yeah, but what the hell is the rest of the country supposed to do during October?"

Uh huh.

After the Civil War, we put Grant in the White House. After the Spanish American War, we put Teddy Roosevelt in the White House. After World War II, we made Eisenhower President. So it seems almost only fitting that after the national cataclysm that was September 11, 2001, we give the job to a New Yorker. The question is to which New Yorker.

How about the carpet bagger who lives up in Westchester? Or the guy who has drawn the ire of the firefighters for his actions and decisions before and after the attacks?

Nah and Nah.

But the thoughtful, shrewd, visionary man who was compelled to step up to the plate by his love for the city and whose leadership has been unparalleled?

But... American says what?

Will the background issues dredged up in attack ads be all about development of the Far West Side and allocation of HOPWA funds and getting foreign diplomats to pay parking tickets? ("This is Silvio Diaz. Along with his neighbors, he turned a garbage strewn vacant lot into a beautiful garden where neighborhood children could play. Until This Man took that garden away from the community and gave it to a greedy developer to build luxury condos. Who will Silvio Diaz support for President? Who will you?") Will people in Omaha need to familiarize themselves with the people and neighborhoods of the Five Boroughs in order to make an informed decision sixteen months from now? ("When he opened up a homeless shelter in Cobble Hill to punish Councilman DiBrienza and the Community Board for opposing him on a land use issue... well that tells you all you need to know about the man.")

*sigh*

I love New York.