Timing is everything, the old saying goes, and it seems this is a lesson that aides to presidential candidate-in-waiting Mayor Michael Bloomberg have learned quite well. Consider:
Bloomberg gets an invite to Jan. 7 summit in Oklahoma with a bunch of big-name mostly former politicos, including Gary Hart and Sam Nunn, to discuss how to pressure the declared presidential field to embrace a more bi-partisan agenda. The summit is packed with press, but the mayor’s performance was subdued and many of the stories the next day talked about how Bloomberg’s presidential star was fading, as Democratic Sen. Barak Obama, who has a similar centrist message, was surging.
But wait...
Two days later, the Associated Press breaks a story, heavily quoting former Bloomberg pollster Douglas Schoen, about how the mayor’s aides are conducting national polling to gauge his chances.
The buzz was back.
But lately, the speculation had begun to wane again. Arizona Sen. John McCain, a moderate Republican with some bi-partisan street cred, handily beat the more conservative former Gov. Mitt Romney in Florida. Then, Rudy Guiliani dropped out of the race and endorsed McCain, as did Bloomberg “soulmate” Gov. Arnold Schwarnezegger, who had just two weeks earlier - with the mayor by his side - vowed not to endorse anyone.
Bloomberg’s window of opportunity was closing, said Sen. Joseph Lieberman. And even the mayor himself blurted out last week that not only was he “not a candidate...but I plan to stay that way.”
The whole thing was enough to prompt “Draft Bloomberg” New York City Chairwoman Karin Gallet to toss in the towel, saying that McCain’s surge was the final straw. Come Super Tuesday, Bloomberg’s hopes would be all but dashed, the pundits opined.
But wait...
Comes today, a story from the AP, quoting Schoen, about how tomorrow’s primaries won’t change a thing, that the mayor may not make a decision about running for months and could launch petition drives to get his name on the ballot in many states before actually declaring his candidacy publicly.
“There is a mechanism in place, there are specific steps being taken and a sense that there is a viability to his candidacy,” Schoen told the AP.
And just like that, we’ve got buzz. Again.