Yes, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg For President!
By Gordon Bishop (06/26/07)
Of all the candidates in both parties seeking to be the next President of the United States of America, only one really has the credentials to effectively manage the world's last remaining "Superpower" - the USA!
And that candidate is Michael Bloomberg, the Mayor of the world’s financial center – New York City.
Bloomberg didn’t amass more than $5 billion by playing the old boys’ game of politics. He is one of the nation’s richest financial leaders because he works hard and applies common sense and genuine brainpower to whatever he thinks and does as an independent thinker.
In fact, Bloomberg – a progressive liberal most of his adult life and a Republican mayor after 9/ll – saved New York City from an economic collapse after the terrorists took out the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers in lower Manhattan: Wall Street, the world’s financial center.
Bloomberg, who’s not a politician, mocks himself by doubting whether the country is ready for a short, divorced, Jewish billionaire.
This is not about his domestic life, or his religion. It’s about success in the real world – not the corrupted political world of elected lawmakers at all levels of government.
Bloomberg’s friend, publisher and commentator Mort Zuckerman, wrote a brilliant, insightful column in his magazine U.S. News & World Report about why voters and taxpayers need Mike Bloomberg as our nation’s leader. Simply put, to save us from self-destruction: Greed, Lies and Corruption in all aspects of our pathetic political process.
Economy. Bloomberg inherited a recession and a $6.4 billion deficit in the city’s bloated budget. He cut costs by reducing the city’s employment by 18,000 people (mostly redundant jobs). As a result, many of the big corporations returned their headquarters to Manhattan, and the number of visitors has increased from some 30 million a year to about 45 million, lifting the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors in the Big Apple.
Bloomberg envisioned a “greater” and “greener” program of 127 initiatives that will make a grow New York more livable. He is investing $400 million a year toward improving mass transit.
Crime. New York is now one of the safest cities in America. Former Mayor Rudy Guiliani broke the back of crime. Bloomberg sharpened the trend by hiring Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, one of the nation’s toughest and most intelligent law officers. Murder is down by almost 40 percent compared with six years ago, and crime overall is down more than 25 percent.
New York City has created a multifaceted antiterrorist unit of over 1,000 police officers, making the city a model for the rest of the country.
Schools. The city’s school system, with 1.1 million students and entrenched bureaucracies, was notoriously impossible to fix. It eluded Giuliani. Bloomberg undid the knots. He won mayoral control from the Board of Education and moved its officers from Brooklyn to the courthouse next to City Hall in lower Manhattan. He dismantled the decentralized system of local school boards, known for their corrupt patronage. The results: a 27.8 percent increase over 2002 in those students exceeding state mathematics standards and a 16 percent improvement at the lowest level in that period, with strong gains among black and Hispanic students – and high school graduate rates at the highest in decades.
Public Health. Bloomberg is probably best known for banning smoking in bars and restaurants. Cynicism and criticism followed. Now the Bloomberg rules have been adopted by man cities in America and around the world. Similarly, his restaurant ban on trans fats, which are believed to cause heart failure.
Politics. Bloomberg won a landside re-election. In a recent Daily News poll, “Mayor Mike” was chosen overwhelmingly as a more effective mayor than Giuliani by 56 percent to 29 percent.
In short, a great mayor. He’s my choice for President. My only choice.
Some 73 percent of Americans think we are on the “wrong track,” and there’s dissatisfaction with both main parties.
Bloomberg could go to the country with the following unique message: “My father never earned more than $11,000 a year. I paid for every penny of my two political for the mayoralty of New York, and I will do so were I to run for the presidency. I would take one penny, one nickel, one dime, one quarter, or one dollar from any of the financial interests or lobbyists whose financial contributions have given them an undue role in the legislative process under both parties and has produced a system of legal corruption through the dependency of our candidates on their financial contributors, not to speak of the illegal bribery of politicians. You won’t get that under a Bloomberg administration”
This is what America has been waiting for. He’s got my vote, two thumps up!
(And with thanks to Mort Zuckerman.)
Gordon Bishop
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