Former President Bill Clinton was scouring Iowa Saturday morning to sway more undecided voters to back his wife Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid, but had some kind words for a possible rival in the 2008 race: New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Clinton talked about the need to reform how political campaigns were financed and used the billionaire mayor as an example of how the dynamics of the 2008 race could be changed.
“Let’s take someone I really admire, the mayor of New York City Mike Bloomberg. I like him, he’s a really good mayor,” Clinton said to voters in West Des Moines. “If he runs for president, he could spend $1 billion and hardly miss it. That’s real money for most of the rest of us. Under the law there are no constraints.”
Bloomberg has publicly denied he plans to run. He switched from being a registered Democrat to be a Republican during his first mayoral race and later became an independent, which was considered by some political watchers as a possible move to run for the White House.
In a rare acknowledgment, Clinton said he had few ideas on how to fix the campaign finance system but urged voters to help come up with ideas. He did offer a couple of ideas: giving candidates more federal dollars or cheaper air time for advertisements if they agreed to abide by spending limits.
– Photo credit: Reuters/Keith Bedford (Clinton earlier this month on the trail)
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10 comments so far
This is Bill Clinton, campaigning of behalf of his wife, so they both can return to the White House, complaining that someone else has an inside track?
If you are sick of politics as usual, join us at http://www.uniteformike.com
- Posted by Andrew MacRaeLike Andrew’s post above me, I also support an independent run for president by Mike Bloomberg. Another site that supports drafting Mike is:
http://www.RunMikeRun.com
The website contains comments by noteworthy individuals, politicians and public figures who have spoken about and/or support a Presidential run by Mike Bloomberg, as well as videos of Michael Bloomberg speaking on issues.
- Posted by Draft BloombergMichael Bloomberg will be humiliated at the polls.
Let him keep his chin up as a good Mayor.
- Posted by Orikinla OsinachiThis is classic Clinton. He perceives there is a problem and suggest federal spending or that the private sector offer cheaper ad time so politicos can get their word out.
How about this? Let’s end ALL public financing of campaigns and let the candidates and their supporters raise and spend as much money as they can.
- Posted by DavidWell, we can use the same language Bill is advocating towards Bloomberg and put an end to family political tyranny, not more than one member of any family and the closest blood line should be allowed to run for presidency if there is history that one family member had succesfully run for presidence.In this instance, The bushes and the Clintons will have none of their family member run for presidency.
- Posted by francisIt’s fun watching ol’ Bill hedge his bets…
- Posted by Nick SayersAnother Clinton attempt at presidency will just galivinize the Republicans. I am for Edwards, he has experience and is committed to the change we need right now in this country.
- Posted by debraI do not think the wife of former president cannot run for presidency. In essence, they are two independent persons. And within the federal law, the husband helps his wife is as legal as Hilary did for Bill.
Apparently, the president should not be too rich. I cannot trust rich candidate since they can hardly understand the poor people’s situation and their minds.
I like Hilary. She is grace and brilliant; she is capable of being a qualified president. I think we have to change the history and elect a female president.
- Posted by George Lia lot of the candidates running have gotten contributions from corporations (including Hillary), you’d be naive if you think that these companies wouldn’t try to sway/influence the president
Bloomberg would get none since he’d be self-financed, he wouldn’t have to answer to any corporation since he received money from none
- Posted by ben[...] would have about $1 billion to spend on a third-party campaign. Former president Bill Clinton mentioned Bloomberg’s wealth with respect to needing to reign in campaign finance rules while stumping for his wife in [...]
- Posted by Bloomberg’s Bling « Kate Stone