Nightmare before Christmas: Bloomberg telling former consultants to keep their calendars open

We might as well start talking about this. Looks like it’s happening.

Mayor Bloomberg’s aides have been reaching out to consultants from his past campaigns about whether they are free for a possible 2008 White House bid – including one who helped make his slick mayoral TV spots, The Post has learned…

The Post has learned that a New York political activist who worked on the mayor’s last campaign had been planning on joining up with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign team and reached out to discuss it first with Bloomberg’s aides.

Bloomberg’s advisers told the politico he should not sign up with another campaign and instead wait and see what happens with the mayor, the sources said.

That’s the second story in five days claiming that he’s thinking seriously of running. The Journal quoted some pals of his a few days ago to the same effect and tried to game out scenarios for what might happen. If it’s polarizer vs. polarizer, i.e. Hillary vs. Rudy, Bloomberg enters as the nonpartisan white knight. If it’s extreme vs. extreme, i.e. Edwards vs. Huck, Bloomberg enters as the center. If it’s unhateable centrist vs. unhateable centrist, i.e. Obama vs. McCain, he probably stays out. Assuming he intends to enter, who’s the optimal nominee for Republicans? If Huckabee wasn’t irritating so many people with his too-cute-by-half religious demagoguery, I’d say he is: He brings the social cons out in droves and neutralizes some of Bloomberg’s appeal to independents with his more centrist domestic policies, and his populism would play well opposite Bloomberg’s grotesque attempt to buy the election with a billion-dollar ad campaign. As it is, Fred’s probably the best bet on paper. He’s on firmer ground with Christian conservatives than Mitt and he’d pick up the same non-religious conservative votes that Romney would. The problem is that he’s much less well funded and we’ll need every penny we can get to counter Bloomy. Besides, evangelicals faced with two pro-choice candidates in the Democratic nominee and Bloomberg may think twice about punishing Mitt by staying home.

Exit question one: Hillary vs. Huck vs. Bloomy — who wins? Exit question two: Obama vs. Mitt vs. Bloomy — who wins? And exit question three: If, come next September, the GOP nominee is floundering with 25% of the vote and Bloomy and the Democrat are within striking distance of each other, would you consider voting Democratic? The big A’s answer: Yes, whatever Rush may think about the ordeals of having to look at aging women.

Blowback