Greg David: The mayor's tough election choice

Greg David: The mayor's tough election choice
Will Bloomberg endorse Romney or Obama?
May 6, 2012 5:59 a.m. Crain's Business Report


Mitt Romney came to breakfast last week. Joe Biden arranged a golf game. And so the courting of Mayor Michael Bloomberg by the two presidential campaigns intensifies. What a coup it would be to have the endorsement of New York's leading politician, known for his independence, his willingness to speak his mind and his impressive popularity.

Good luck—to President Barack Obama and Mr. Romney, but especially the mayor. This could be the hardest decision he's ever made. Let's run through the issues.

Start with the most important one of them all: What to do about the economy and the country's dismal fiscal future?

Mr. Romney wants a thorough overhaul (some might say a radical one) of entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid. He opposes tax hikes, although he's open to Rep. Paul Ryan's tax-reform scheme of lower rates and fewer deductions, which might actually raise more revenue from the rich.

The president is adamant about what needs to be done. Tax the wealthy. Eliminate tax-code preferences for investment income, in the name of fairness as much as anything else. He's for only modest reform of entitlements.

As for the mayor, he wants to raise taxes on everyone by letting the Bush tax cuts expire, because that's the only way to put the nation's fiscal house in order. Yet he particularly disdains the president's rhetoric, saying, “Pitting one group against another not only divides us in counterproductive ways but offers one group the false promise of something for nothing.'' Hard to see how he can choose on that issue.

Or consider Mr. Obama's singular achievement, the health care reform plan. Just last week, the mayor dissed “Obamacare,” saying it did nothing to contain runaway health care costs.

How Mr. Bloomberg gets to an Obama endorsement given just these two issues is hard to fathom.

The Republican candidate holds positions that are anathema to the mayor, too, especially on immigration. “New York would collapse without immigrants,'' Mr. Bloomberg once told a congressional committee. He has consistently supported new laws that would legalize illegal immigrants in the U.S. and keep the country's doors open to the world's talent. How does that square with Mr. Romney's far-right pandering, endorsing harsh policies that would send undocumented immigrants packing?

The gap between Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Romney on most social issues is a chasm, especially the mayor's commitment to strong gun-control laws.

Some rationalizations are possible. The mayor could decide Mr. Obama hasn't accomplished anything on immigration or guns and that at least Mr. Romney doesn't demonize the rich or Wall Street. Or he could decide that the president and he are in sync on many issues, and that Mr. Obama will moderate his fiscal policies and temper his approach after the election.

On second thought, maybe the mayor's dilemma is shared by most voters who aren't rabid liberals or conservatives. He'll have to choose, just like everyone else.

A version of this article appeared in the May. 7, 2012, print issue of Crain's New York Business.

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