December 31st, 2007

(5 votes, average: 2.8 out of 5)

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Greenwald from Salon Proves the Point for “Why Bloomberg for President”

This morning, Glenn Greenwald from Salon.com, made a whithering post on why Mayor Bloomberg would not be the “shining beacon” for America’s future we believe him to be.

To me, his rambling post is quite funny, because unlike the neocons he viciously tries to connect Mike’s positions on are those hated “sound bites”, those short quips that you find in high-school book reports stuffed into the rhetoric to try to “strengthen” your argument (and increase your word count).

Case in point: Glenn seems to think that Mike’s position on national immigration would suggest he wants a nationwide database for DNA and fingerprinting that would be a violation of civil liberties. But Bloomberg suggests otherwise, as seen in the very article Glenn references:

Bloomberg compared his proposed federal identification database to the Social Security card, insisting that such a system would not violate citizens’ privacy and was not a civil liberties issue.

Is this an attack on civil liberties, or is this a chance to improve an already creaky system (like Social Security cards) that is taken advantage of on a daily basis. It is funny when you consider that everyone that is born in America immediately gets a Social Security number, but this other form of identification using biometrics would be a bad thing because it would reduce civil liberties?

The goal is to balance the need for security while upholding the ideals of America, where any person who does so legally, can become a true American by applying for and getting citizenship.  Didn’t you ever watch Moscow on the Hudson?

Another case in point: Glenn seems to think the Mike is an “unrestrained advocate and enforcer of the War on Drugs” based on one policy decision Mike made in 2002. From the site that Glenn uses, OnTheIssues, you can read that while Bloomberg may have experienced or experimented with drugs when he was a youth, the responsibility of running the Big Apple has a lot more responsibility that your own personal interests.

And Glenn, if you were going to be a target of a NORML campaign that was going to take advantage of your youthful transgressions, what would you do? Would you want to condone such an act (especially after 9/11), or would you want to demonstrate your resolve in addressing the issue in your early days of your Administration? While I hold many liberal views, I can understand the management decision Mike had to take both in terms of social needs (taking a stand for law-and-order) and political ones (being seen as soft on drugs).

Glenn - maybe you should consider that Bloomberg is a true leader with real management experience.

Bloomberg knows how to work across the major parties and is looking to come up with a true alternative, not harangued with cries of favors due.

Personally, I would rather have a candidate who understands the issues facing us and addresses them with the mentality of an executive who, on one hand, must be compassionate in the short-term, but also must consider the long-term ramifications and the choices that need to be made.

In this light, I believe Mike Bloomberg has the skill and the ability to be our next President.

Oh, and Glenn: we just got our campaign for signatures going in the past couple of weeks. And in 1.5 days, we doubled our list and are looking to double again and again, hopefully every 1.5 days. Heck, we just hit 611 since your blog post. Thanks!

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow. Help us grow the movement - join other Americans who have signed to Draft Mike Bloomberg!