Tabloid reaction to Mayor Bloomberg’s announcement that he will not run for president is the usual study in contrasts. The Daily News’s Josh Greenman and editorial board haven’t missed a beat and are already clamoring for Vice President Bloomberg. Grossman says Bloomberg would be the perfect complement to an Obama candidacy by inspiring confidence with his unstoppable financial skills.
Greenman also writes Bloomberg’s partisan flexibility, impressive resume, track record in New York and, last but not least, his deep pockets could help wipe the floor with McCain. Downsides? The phrase ‘Obama-Bloomberg’ gets kinda stuck in your mouth. And there may still be one or two benighted souls out there with a racist hang-up about putting a black and a Jew in the White House.
On the other side of the tabloid divide, the Post’s David Seifman is simply “infuriated” with Bloomberg’s two years of coy White House-flirtation; his article decries it as a “shameful shadow campaign that deceived the voters.” The “con job” had Bloomberg “telling everyone he wasn't running while allowing his top political aide to drop one hint after another than he just might.”
Yet even though Seifman cites all the familiar reasons why a Bloomberg candidacy would have been hopeless, one can’t help but wonder if deep down his fury is borne out of disappointment – that he won’t have a chance to kick Hizzoner around in the national spotlight. That is, unless his aides start dropping some Vice Presidential rumors.
