Bloomberg For Vice President?!

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2008/03/01/2008-03-01_barack_obama_calls_but _mayor_bloomberg_s.html

According to the Daily News, Mayor Mike Bloomberg received a call from Barack Hussein Obama that was friendly in tone. Word is that Bloomberg sidestepped any talk of a spot on the Democratic ticket as vice president. It can only be speculated how diligently faceless publicists worked to leak out word of this telephone call.
On paper, Mike Bloomberg is a Republican. A Democratic nomination for mayor would have been prohibitively expensive. This is why Mayor Bloomberg applied his business acumen to the political world and became a Republican. His one great idea as mayor was "311" a non emergency number that one can call to be connected to the appropriate government agency. His advocacy of solar paneling in government buildings should also be supported. Beyond that, Bloomberg has attempted to turn New York into a nanny state. His crusade against smoking was followed up by a campaign against transfats in restaurants. This campaign for public health creates the illusion that all of New York's more lethal problems have already been solved. There are neighbourhoods that Bloomberg seldom visits. These are neighborhoods where the second hand smoke that threatens people's health comes from the barrels of guns. He has presided with bland aloofness over a meteoric rise in the cost of parking and sanitation tickets. Under Mayor Koch, an undeservedly lauded mayor, there was at least a robust strain of criticism of Koch administration policies. Mayor Bloomberg's position as founder of Bloomberg Radio seems to have anchored his favourable treatment by the local news media in New York. I remember getting a yellowed copy of the Pyongyang Times back in the seventies at my local communist bookstore in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The first six lines of each article about the "Great Leader" were devoted to a list for florid honorifics such as "the Great Leader, Savior of the nation, our guiding light, etc. According to the Pyongyang Times, an empty seat on every bus symbolised the idea that the "Dear Leader" always rode with his people. Even as a young communist, this lavish praise was eerie to me. I always found North Korean propaganda to be a good cheap alternative to MAD magazine.
I'll give Bloomberg credit. The fawning treatment he receives in the local media is not as surreal as Kim Jong Il's media image in North Korea. A comparison to Tito in 1970's Yugoslavia does however come to mind.
Bloomberg has a naive attitude towards gun control that does nothing to take guns from the hands of criminals. Obama has similar attitudes towards disarmament on a national scale.
Would Bloomberg's position on an Obama ticket attract Jewish votes? Would it blunt criticism of Obama's perceived carteresque bias against Israel? I am sure that these are motives for choosing him, along with the financial backing he might give to a presidential campaign.
It should be remembered that Jews do not automatically support Jewish causes. Henry Kissinger lobbied Richard Nixon during the Yom Kippur war to drag his feet in sending arms to Israel. It was Richard Nixon who was instrumental in airlifting critical supplies of arms in the 1973 war. Nitpicking historians focus on Nixon's private antipathy towards Jews. I wish there were more anti-semites like that.
It is childish to vote for a candidate because of his or her ethnicity. In Crown Heights, Jews are a tiny minority. The focus is not on electing a Jew to represent us but on articulating the needs of the Jewish community to the existing leadership,which is reflective of African American numerical predominance.
I vote for Jewish values, which considerably overlap Christian values in matters of public policy. I do not apologise for an interest in Jewish physical and spiritual survival, whether it is in the Holy Land or elsewhere. I look at a candidate's record. Ethnic quotas have no place in the voting booth. Some of the most staunch proponents of a public policy that is compatible with Jewish values are not Jewish.
Some people are happy to send an annoying local politician to Washington to serve as vice president. I do not view a Bloomberg vice presidency with such cynicism. His political philosophy, his aloofness and reputed aversion to criticism should not be inflicted on the American people. Until term limits put a merciful end to his tenure, Bloomberg should remain New York's burden.