Rudy Giuliani yesterday said all the talk about his successor at City Hall running for president won’t ever amount to anything because Mayor Bloomberg couldn’t win, “and I think Mike would only do it to win.”
“My gut is that he won’t, because it’s very difficult to see how . . . you put together the states to win in an independent candidacy,” Giuliani said on ABC’s “This Week.”
With a similar résumé and similarly moderate views, a Bloomberg candidacy is widely considered most dangerous to Giuliani if he is the Republican nominee – particularly because Bloomberg does not appear to share some of the personal negatives of the thrice-married former New York mayor.
Still, Giuliani said it is unclear from which side of the political aisle the independent Bloomberg would likely draw his votes.
“He was a Republican mayor of New York, but then again, he left the Republican Party,” he said.
Bloomberg has repeatedly denied – but not completely ruled out – that he is considering a possible third-party entry into the 2008 election. His final term as mayor is up in 2009.
Speculation about a Bloomberg run for the White House intensified last week when The Post reported that some of his former political advisers had been told to hold off on plans to join other presidential campaigns.