US Presidential Elections: Michael Bloomberg Mulling Run for President as Independent - by Mara Gay

Michael Bloomberg

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is seriously considering a run for president and is asking aides to explore a potential bid.

Mr. Bloomberg, 73 years old, has long contemplated a run at the White House. But the unlikely rise and continued strength of Donald Trump, along with polls suggesting Hillary Clinton’s campaign may be flagging, have driven the billionaire businessman closer than ever before to entering the race, a close adviser said Saturday.

Eyeing a potential opening for the first time, Mr. Bloomberg has retained a consultant to help him run on the independent ballot in state primaries. He has commissioned polls to test his path to victory. And he has directed the close circle of advisers who worked for him as mayor and have remained by his side over the past two years since he left office to begin mapping out a blueprint for a run, one adviser said.

That adviser said the former mayor has been upset by what he sees as extremist rhetoric from Republicans in the race, as well as a leftward turn from Mrs. Clinton, who is fending off an unexpectedly strong challenge in the Democratic primary from the more liberal Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

Mr. Bloomberg’s path to victory remains narrow and unlikely. His outspoken support for gun control, as well as other liberal social views, could dissuade some Republicans from backing him. His more conservative record on policing, as well as his background on Wall Street, could prevent him from picking up crucial support among some Democrats.

Mr. Bloomberg, who founded the media company that bears his namesake, Bloomberg LP, has a history of switching parties, first running for mayor in 2001 as a Republican before switching his affiliation to independent. He served three terms as New York mayor.

He is likely to make a decision on the presidential bid sometime in March.

Read more: Michael Bloomberg Mulling Run for President as Independent - WSJ

The US Autumn revolution: Occupy Wall Street: - Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg's nightmare scenario

Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg exercised a show of brute force shortly after midnight Tuesday morning and ordered police to clear Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, New York. The place where the Occupy Wall Street protestors had decided to settle for the past few months, protesting by day and sleeping in tents by night.

The Mayor might think differently but Occupy Wall Street could become his public-relations nightmare. It could even make him go down in history as another public official who caved in to his own moneyed interests. Bloomberg could very well be remembered as a desperate mayor who bowed to the will of his wealthy citizens — the very population group that Occupy Wall Street demonstrators have targeted.

Bloomberg should know better than most people that whenever a figure in a position of authority resorts to an overt public demonstration of force, people who find themselves in a lose, lose situation can and will react with powerful emotions and often with violence.

A blogger wrote: "Perhaps New York Mayor Bloomberg, much like the obnoxiously rich plutocrats and right-wing puppets in the media paid to tout their corporate bottom line, fears this truly people-inspired movement might end in a Egyptian style revolt in which the 99 percent plebeians reclaim their country. After all, you can only beat the living crap out of your wife before she eventually rises up and runs you down with her car."

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