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Michael Bloomberg for President
I would like to share the reasons why I support Mike Bloomberg with other's here who may want to learn about him.


It is rare that we find a candidate that agrees with us on every single issue. But at the end of the day, the President is the executive manager of the world's most powerful enterprise, the US government. Competence and management experience are the most undervalued skills that a successful president must have. What is most important to me is, does the candidate have the competence and the experience to manage such an enterprise? Will they keep the economy strong? Will they make sound judgement in a crisis? Will they hire competent people, or just give valuable positions to unqualified individuals because they either have party connects or "owe" someone because of a campaign contribution?

This makes Bloomberg the right man at the right time.

His money buys him independence of a sort no other candidate can claim.

He doesn't look at decisions from an ideological point of view. He's very pragmatic.

Much to-do is made over Bloomberg's wealth. As the 25th wealthiest American, with Forbes Magazine conservatively estimating his net-worth at $11.5 Billion (some analyst speculate he could be worth over $20 Billion), it is understandable why people take notice. He is also the 7th most generous philanthropist, giving away over $200 Million dollars to charitable causes last year alone. But the most noteworthy thing about Bloomberg's money, is that he earning it all. Most people don't seem to know that Mike Bloomberg was born into a low income household. His father kept the books for a dairy farm, and never made more than $11k a year in his entire life.

Mike's leadership skills emerged at a young age. In the Boy Scouts he obtained the rank of Eagle Scout, and had planned to be an electrician. He got a degree in electrical engineering from Johns Hopkins University... but he was more ambitious. He then paid his way to an MBA at Harvard.

His Harvard MBA led him to a position at the Wall Street trading firm, Salomon Brothers. Unlike most of his silver-spooned co-workers, he did not come from money. He perhaps had something to prove. He developed a reputation for being the smartest guy in the building, but also a reputation for being "too independent". He was never good at ass-kissing and is rumored to have once told the CEO that he could run the business better than him. When Solomon Brothers was acquired in a merger, Bloomberg was quickly pushed out. He had built up equity in the firm as part of his compensation, and his buy out was $10 Million when he was shown the door.

He took the $10 Million dollars from his Solomon Brothers equity, and used it to self finance a start-up, appropriately named, Bloomberg.

Mike Bloomberg pioneered financial sector news aggregating and analysis tools, as a service.

Today he still owns 68% of Bloomberg LP. It is mostly from his stake in Bloomberg the company, that Bloomberg's wealth is calculated. This is why it is difficult to calculate his net worth. Bloomberg has spoken of how he intends to liquidate his ownership, and this could spark a bidding war among such companies as News Corp., Google and MicroSoft, who would all like to acquire control of Bloomberg LP.

Mike is self made. More than any member of his generation, he is the living embodiment of the American dream.

As mayor or New York, Mike Bloomberg has had one accomplishment after another.

He did what everyone said could not be done: He brought all five boroughs of the New York public school system under the direct management of the mayor's office, renegotiated the Teachers Union contracts to accept a base pay cut in exchange for merit based pay raises, acceptance of standardized testing of students to rate teachers' performance and the ability to terminate teachers who did not perform. Part of the school budget is allocated based upon the each schools' performance as well, the best performing schools receiving more funds. As a consequence, bad teachers have been weeded out of the system, competition has been introduced as teachers compete for raises and schools compete for funds, and high school academic scores in the city are up 30% since he took office.

Bloomberg took office about four months after September 11th. Giuliani had spent heavily in his last year in office, not anticipating the impact of the dot-com bubble burst or the financial impact of 9-11 which nobody could have prepared for. Tax revenues dropped, and Giuliani passed on a budget crisis of staggering proportions. As a consequence, Bloomberg took office inheriting a budget gap for the city larger than the entire state budget of some other presidential candidate's states (yes, you read that correctly). New York law mandates a balanced budget. Albany was talking about stepping in and taking over the city's finances. Due to these same events, New York City's unemployment rate also shot to record highs. Not to mention the devastation caused by September 11th itself. Bloomberg had very unpopular decisions he had to make. Much of the city's budget is made up of fixed costs. He chose to get the pain over with. He slashed budgets on everything he could slash. He even closed many redundant fire stations. I cannot express to you how unpopular it was to close fire stations after 9-11. When there was nothing left he could cut he did what had to be done and raised property taxes. He campaigned as a fiscal conservative, so raising taxes shortly after entering office was not his intended agenda. Today, the city has a balanced budget. He set up a rainy day fund in the event of a future budget gap crisis. Today New York City's Standard & Poor's bond rating is "AA", the highest ever in the city's history. Unemployment is also currently at a record low. For the past two years now he has cut property taxes, as well as targeted city sales tax cuts.

In the wake of 9-11, many prominent companies from lower Manhattan relocated their headquarters out of New York. Some went across the river to Jersey City. Others moved to Connecticut, or as far away as Boston. Bloomberg treated New York like a business, and these companies like client accounts that had been lost. He personally went out and pitched to them the benefits of relocating back to New York, offering tax breaks, and whatever incentives he could put on the table to get them back to New York. This was no small task. Many of these companies had made large investments, building new headquarters, relocating all of their management. One by one he brought them back until every single major company that had moved away in the wake of 9-11 eventually returned to New York, and several new financial firms came along, too. Like winning new accounts. This is just one way his business background paid off.

Traditionally, to get an area of New York rezoned is the sort of endeavor that takes years. A large rezoning can be in the work for a decade or more. Every special interest group fights these things tooth and nail— lawsuits slowly wind their way through the courts. Bloomberg took a look at the whole city, made decisions about more efficient land use, and put a comprehensive rezoning program into place. He then went to the major developers that would profit most from the rezoning, and he set up a privately financed affordable-housing fund. To kick start the fund he threw in a few million of his own money (not city budget money, but HIS money) to shame the developers into donating generously. He then initiated the largest low cost housing development program in New York in over half a century. This got the special interest groups to back his rezoning program, and everything was pushed through without resistance. This rezoning, in turn, sparked the largest construction boom in New York City history, dwarfing even the 1920s. So, the developers got to move forward with lucrative developments without the usual legal obstacles, the city got tons of construction jobs, the poor got affordable housing, and the tax payers didn't have to foot the bill for one single cent. Much of this has not been in Manhattan, but in the often neglected outer boroughs. Today Queens and Brooklyn sport river-front skylines of their own that would be impressive for many cities, and in the Bronx... yes, that Bronx, they are constructing luxury condominiums in what were formerly blighted neighborhoods.

I could go on and on.

It's the economy stupid

As economic worries continue to outrank the war in Iraq as most American's primary concern in polls among likely voters, this plays to Bloomberg's strengths. Bloomberg will be an excellent president for so many reasons, but on the issue of the economy alone, he should win the election. Who would you trust your money with?

Though he is an independent, he spent most of his life as a Democrat, before briefly switching to the Republican party before then dropping all party affiliation in Spring of 2007. He is generally considered a social liberal and pro-business fiscal conservative: Pro-free markets and opposed to too much regulation of business, but pro-choice, pro-gay rights.

I have to stop here. You probably wouldn't read anymore, if you've read this far anyway.

I hope this sparks conversation about Michael Bloomberg as a potential candidate.



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He's gather some independant votes, but he's also alienated the base of both parties, making him non-viable...

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"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

I also like Mike Bloomberg,I'm an Independent and I am painfully aware that an independent has hurdles to overcome that are next to impossible. I remember how popular Ross Perot was,he somehow managed to get 20% of the vote. However,states elect the POTUS,how many states did Ross win? ZERO,that's how many states he won! Let's say Bloomberg managed to win 3 states,how does he get around the Electoral College issue?

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"Destiny must be shaped and not left to mere chance."..Spencer Collins ..