More murmurs of Bloomberg's Presidential aspirations: A secret meeting is reported

CBS: This Time, Bloomberg's 'No' Is Not Quite So Firm

...Ever since the Democrat-turned-Republican won re-election in 2005 -- stomping his opponent in this left-leaning town -- there have been murmurs of Bloomberg presidential aspirations. Most are fueled by one of his aides, Kevin Sheekey, who has publicly acknowledged his efforts to cajole his boss into the race.

The scenario floated by Sheekey and other supporters has Bloomberg waiting until next year, when the front-runners for both parties are clear. If one candidate is way on the left and the other far to the right, some envision room for Bloomberg right down the middle as an independent.

That is, in fact, one scenario that was floated at a secret meeting in September between Bloomberg, his aides, a top political strategist and a Wall Street money man. The meeting was reported exclusively by CBS 2's Andrew Kirtzman.

Sources told Kirtzman at the time that the dinner was held at the home of Michael Steinhardt, a legendary Wall Street hedge fund manager and a Bloomberg friend. He brought along Al From, head of the Democratic Leadership Council, which played a part in Bill Clinton's rise to power in 1992.

Kirtzman reported that the meeting had been engineered by New York City Schools Commissioner Joel Klein.

Aides to the mayor cautioned Kirtzman in September that he was very skeptical about the idea of running. In fact, one source said that at the dinner Bloomberg asked, "How likely is a 5'7"-Jew-from-New-York billionaire who's divorced and running as an independent to become president of the United States?"

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_064150852.html

I suspect that this would hurt Democrats a lot more than Republicans...which means another Republican Presidency. Republicans can probably tack to the Right, knowing that Bloomberg will pull Independents and a good chunk of Democrats.

He certainly has the money to buy his way in.

I like it.

That's all. Just think.

Because we all know they an arsenol of attack ads they'll dust off and drag out of the GOP basment soon enough.. If it starts getting ugly like that -- I wonder if Rudy would try and link up with Bloomberg?

Are they friends?

Bloomwho? Here in NY you wouldn't even know he was mayor.
What does he do ?

the dinner was held 6 months ago and had multiple threads on DU.

The big story is this week's NewsWeek article on Bloomberg. Notice the swipe at Giuliani:



...and the attention from Unity08:



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17439758/site/newsweek/?from=rss

The ex-mayor of New York City, Rudolph Giuliani and the ex-governor of New York, George Pataki. Both have harbored the dream of deserving the presidency due to their past posts, and to have a billionaire mayor upsurp them would be unbearable. And it would also divert money from their campaigns (potential - Pataki hasn't announced yet).