Bloomberg tests the waters

By Libby

Bloomberg, stealing a page from Fred Thompson's playbook, is coyly denying he's in the race, but anybody with more than two firing synapses can read his current campaign-style tour of the US, followed by yesterday's announcement that he is leaving the Republican party, as a defacto declaration of his candidacy.

How will it affect the current declared contender's campaigns? Who knows? Since he's now registered as an independent, it won't impact the primaries although the amount of buzz he's generated has captured media attention that they all prefer be focused on their own campaigns.

At this point, I think the main lesson here for the politicians is to remind them there's a downside to starting the campaign season too bloody early. Bloomberg, and to a lesser extent, Thompson, by avoiding an open declaration, enjoy media attention and build name recognition without the bother, and political danger, of having to take specific positions on policy.

[Thanks to The Moderate Voice for the link.]