Bloomberg's gamble [View All]

Bloomberg's gamble

New York City is frequently derided as being too eccentric, sophisticated and "European" to belong to the real America.

When it comes to elections, it has always been the stage for lavish fundraisers, mined for cash by both sides, but largely ignored as a source of coveted votes because New York tends to vote Democrat and hasn't swung - in electoral terms - for decades.

So wouldn't it be funny if the three names on the presidential ballot in 2008 all hailed from the Empire State?

Did I say three?

Here's the imaginary list: Hillary Clinton, the junior senator from New York in the Democratic corner; Rudy Giuliani, the former Mayor of New York, in the Republican corner; and current Mayor Michael Bloomberg somewhere in the middle, hovering as an independent candidate, an antibody in Washington party politics, stealing disaffected voters from both parties.