AHC/WI: Bloomberg '08

I'm sure this topic has been brought up before, but it might be worth bringing up again to get new insights. So, two related but distinct questions...

1) Presuming Mike Bloomberg decides to run for President as a political independent in the 2008 election, what does his path to victory look like? What does his platform look like? Who would his running mate need to be? What Republican and Democratic nominees would be most conducive for a Bloomberg victory? Assuming he wins outright, what's the most likely combination of states that would give him an Electoral College majority? In the case of a hung Electoral College, is it plausible that Congress might select him as a compromise President (he'd probably had to have won the popular vote and the major party candidates would likely have to be either unpopular or alienating)?

2) In a world where Bloomberg is elected as President, what does the next four to eight years look like? How does he handle the Great Recession? Does he try to govern as a true independent, or end up becoming a de facto Republican or Democrat? What sort of legislation might he call for? How does he handle social issues?

What about foreign policy? How does Bloomberg handle the War on Terror? What sort of relations could we expect with Iran? Russia? China? The EU? Can we expect any big events to turn out radically different, like the Arab Spring?

Does he win reelection in 2012?

Discuss.
 
Independent runs go as far as their distinction from the political sphere and existing candidates go. Bloomberg can't take free-floating "anti-establishment votes" for instance because he's tainted by his ardent Iraq War support.
 
It's tough to see him running with McCain and Obama as the nominees, and particularly tough for him to do well enough to win with the latter in the race, so getting those two out of the race is important.

McCain is pretty easy, given that he initially wasn't doing too well in the primaries and it's not hard to imagine a scenario where he doesn't get the nod. Of the people who could realistically have gotten the nomination, Huckabee probably makes things easiest for Bloomberg. Getting Obama to not be the Democratic nominee is even easier, but IMO it's even unlikelier for Bloomberg to run against Clinton. Maybe have Obama stay out of the race and Edwards emerge as the primary anti-Clinton candidate?

So in this scenario you have Bloomberg facing off against Huckabee (who's almost certainly going to lose thanks to Bush) and whoever the Democrats nominate in place of Edwards (assuming his scandal still surfaces and he resigns from the ticket, an overused POD but still). I wouldn't entirely rule out a Huckabee or Democrat win, but Bloomberg's probably favoured.
 
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