It is November 7, 2012. A plurality of the people of New York state have voted to put their confidence in AE candidate Michael Bloomberg. In a close election, neither Democratic candidate Barack Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney have secured a majority of electoral votes. New York’s 31 electoral votes will now determine who will be president. Yet by AE bylaws, Michael Bloomberg is now sidelined and will not decide how to cast the New York electoral votes on behalf of the people of New York. Instead, it is the Americans Elect delegates who will decide whether Obama or Romney receive New York’s 31 electoral votes and the presidency. As a practical matter, the people of the state of New York will be completely disenfranchised in the 2012 electoral college vote.

Americans Elect, backed by a bucket load of New York mystery money, is hiring petition gatherers, fighting expensive legal battles, and doing the hard grunt work necessary to get on the ballot in all fifty states. All in order to field a presidential candidate – To Be Named Later. So – if you are considering putting your idealistic heart and soul into this brave new political operation, make sure you understand exactly what you are getting into.

Big time speech today from the guy who definitely has his eye on the White House. Here’s the video… I’ll offer the transcript below after my analysis. Personally, this feels disingenuous from a guy like Bloomberg who has repeatedly used the government to regulate New York City businesses and consumer behavior six ways to Sunday. [...]

In America, in matters of religious tolerance, there should be no close calls, no qualification of primary principles, and the first amendment should not be location dependent. I hold no quarter with the distinction of “rights” vs. right which strikes me as a Clintonian parsing for those looking to rationalize making the Cordoba Project move the mosque/cultural center.

Where the Independent Voters — and Independent Candidates — Are in 2010 You’ll never see what happened last Tuesday looking through a two-party microscope! Nope. You need an independent historyscope to get this one! I had the pleasure of hearing independent strategist Jackie Salit give her analysis of the November elections on Sunday night on [...]

News Headlines for Independent Voters 10/29/09 As we head to Election Day 2009, everyone is talking about the Yankees and the Phillies. And a few people are talking about the Mayoral race in NYC, where independent candidate Mike Bloomberg is poised to become the first independent mayor of New York, running on the Independence Party [...]

SERIOUS AS A HEART ATTACK: THE INDEPENDENTS’ STORY By: Jackie Salit When we finally get far enough down the road on health care reform, it will become clear that a driving force in the intensity of the fight was a heart attack. Not the medical kind. The political kind. Independents swung decisively to Barack Obama [...]

News Headlines for Independent Voters 10/6/09 Independent Voters On healthcare and other hot issues: Follow the independents–The number of voters not tied to Democrats or Republicans is expanding fast. Both parties need to adjust. (By the Christian Science Monitor’s Editorial Board) Were the 2010 elections to occur today, 43 percent of independents say they would [...]

INDEPENDENT VOTERS Wherever independents fall on the supposed political “spectrum”, if they ARE on the political “spectrum”, (i.e. they do exist!) Many MSM publishers seek increasing irrelevance if they don’t see the direction that the American people are headed…. While it’s clear that independents are “all over the map” on social issues, they increasingly come [...]

Never one to miss an opportunity, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg may run on the Republican ticket next mayoral election while still remaining a declared independent. Apparently, despite being an apostate to the national party, local borough GOP leaders are willing to let the still-popular mayor put his name on their line. If you’re keeping [...]

Some tough cuts and tax increases are coming to The Big Apple. From WCBSTV.com: “This is a very tough time for our city and nation,” Bloomberg said. “We have a $4 billion budget gap. It is serious, I think it is manageable.” [...] For now, Bloomberg is proposing $894 million in new sales taxes, including: [...]

If you thought $700 billion was a lot of money, well.. It is. But $2 trillion is.. ridiculous. This is Danielle Ivory from ANP. Congress and the new administration have been focusing their attention on strengthening oversight for the Treasury’s TARP program, but meanwhile few are paying any attention to the Federal Reserve. Since September, [...]

All hail the new Tammany Hall! From NY Times: After a spirited, emotional and at times raucous debate, the New York City Council voted, 29 to 22, on Thursday afternoon to extend term limits, allowing Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to seek re-election next year and undoing the result of two voter referendums that had imposed [...]

And given the current circumstances on Wall Street, my bet is he’ll get. MarketWatch has the details… Bloomberg announced Thursday he supports changing the term limits law to run for a third term. Observers have respected Bloomberg for restoring a sense of optimism to a post-9/11 New York City while encouraging tourists to visit, keeping [...]

(UPDATE: Both campaigns rejected the offer because they don’t want to limit it to just one network. Hmmm…) Now this is a pretty brilliant move… The guy who has some of the deepest pockets in the world, and could be a VP for either candidate, wants to use that leverage. From Politico: New York Mayor [...]

As previously reported, John McCain may be considering New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for the vice president spot. One issue: he may be on Barack Obama’s list as well. The very fact that the exact same man is possibly being considered by both the presumptive Democratic and Republican nominees tells us that both sides’ [...]

I seriously doubt that McCain would pick Bloomberg, given his many liberal stances. Still, NY Mag speculates that he’s being actively courted by Arizona senator: The morning before John McCain’s sprightly turn on Saturday Night Live on May 17, the de facto GOP presidential nominee had breakfast at Sarabeth’s on Central Park South with Michael [...]

He’s arguably THE most business savvy politician ever, and here’s his opinion on the Clinton/McCain proposal… “It’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view. I don’t understand why you think there’s any merit to it whatsoever. We’re trying to discourage people from driving and we’re trying [...]

Well, looks like Bloomberg keeps popping up in the conversation… From NY1: In an interview on “Inside City Hall” Friday night, Deputy Mayor Kevin Sheekey promoted the idea of an Obama-Bloomberg presidential ticket – and revealed that Mayor Michael Bloomberg spoke Thursday with the Democratic presidential frontrunner Barack Obama. “Certainly you could joke that Obama’s [...]

I wonder what Doug Bailey and Gerald Rashfoon are gonna do now? From MSNBC: NEW YORK – After two years of playing coy about his presidential ambitions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared in a newspaper editorial Wednesday that he will not run for president as an independent and said he might support the candidate who “takes [...]