December 31, 2007 (LPAC)--Just as Lyndon LaRouche warned months ago, the abysmal performance of the field of Democratic and Republican Presidential candidates has created a renewed push for an ``independent'' Presidential candidacy by New York City's Mayor and Joe Lieberman booster, Michael Bloomberg. A crony of hedge fund looter and Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) founder Michael Steinhardt, Mayor Bloomberg came to the rescue when sane Democratic voters rejected Sen. Joe Lieberman's 2006 renomination for the Democratic Senate seat in Connecticut. Bloomberg poured money and seasoned campaign staff into Lieberman's independent candidacy, and defeated the Democratic nominee, Ned Lamont, in the November general elections. Such is the stuff that Mayor Bloomberg, a former Salomon Brothers partner, is made of.

Yet, despite that pedigree, a group of former Republican and Democratic centrists, including cabinet secretaries, Senators and party officials, are lining up behind Bloomberg, as a possible ``white knight'' candidate for President in 2008. On Jan. 7, 2008, according to a report in today's Washington Post, a conference will be held at the University of Oklahoma, to promote a bipartisan or independent candidacy. Bloomberg is being touted as a keynote speaker, largely because he has the ability to personally finance a multi-billion dollar Presidential run. The event is being hosted by University of Oklahoma President, and former U.S. Senator David Boren (D-Ok.), and features other well-known politicos, including: former Senators Charles Robb (D-Va.), Sam Numm (D-Ga.), John Danforth (R-Mo.), William Cohen (R-Me.), Bob Graham (D-Fla.), Gary Hart (D-Co.), and Alan Dixon (D-Ill.); along with Rep. Jim Leach (R-Io.), former RNC Chairman Bill Brock, former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman (R), and David Abshire, former head of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and now the president of the Center for the Study of the Presidency. Susan Eisenhower, granddaughter of the late President Dwight Eisenhower, and current U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), are also slated to participate.

Apart from the opportunistic and dangerous embrace of Bloomberg, the factors driving the former Senators and governors to promote an independent or bipartisan candidacy are not totally off the wall. A invitation letter by Boren and Nunn, to attend the UO Jan. 7 event, stated, in part: ``Our political system is, at the least, badly bent and many are concluding that it is broken at a time where America must lead boldly at home and abroad. Partisan polarization is preventing us from uniting to meet the challenges that we must face if we are to prevent further erosion in America's power of leadership and example... Today we are a house divided. We believe that the next president must be able to call for a unity of effort by choosing the best talent available--without regard to political party--to help lead our nation.'' Boren, the former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, told reporters that the meeting will press for a ``government of national unity,'' to overcome partisanship. ``Until you end the polarization and have bipartisanship, nothing else matters, because one party simply will block the other from acting.''