Billionaire John Henry Wants Billionaire Mike Bloomberg to Run for President
Photo via AP
Red Sox principal owner John Henry celebrated Presidents Day by urging former three-term New York mayor Michael Bloomberg to make a run for the White House. Keeping in line with the first law of online media—”Tweets with pictures get more attention than those without”—the Boston Globe attached a photo of some avant garde carpeting, for good measure.
Two party system completely broken. Bloomberg should run. More importantly long term, third party construct needed. pic.twitter.com/q1bOm4wrNF
— John W. Henry (@John_W_Henry) February 15, 2016
“Two party system completely broken. Bloomberg should run,” Henry tweeted. “More importantly long term, third party construct needed.”
Bloomberg, who was born in Brighton, won his first two terms as a Republican, left the party in 2007, and won his third in 2009 as an independent after successfully campaigning to change the city’s term limits. Once described by Forbes as “America’s richest politician,” Bloomberg is the eighth-wealthiest person in America, just behind Facebook founder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg, with a net worth around $40 billion.
Bloomberg, 74, has been less-than-secretly mulling a third-party run, just as he had done in 2008 and 2012. The New York Times reported in late January that he had instructed advisers to begin drawing up plans for a third-party run, with no shortage of media speculation—much of it generated by Bloomberg’s own eponymous outlet.
Henry, whose wealth is an estimated $2.1 billion, has a point. The lack of a third-party construct in this country is real. And, as explained in a piece by Real Clear Politics’ Reed Galen over the weekend, this could present some difficulty for even Bloomberg.
But should Bloomberg follow through and make a run before November 8, and the respective frontrunners in the Democratic and Republican parties retain their leads, the American people will have the unique joy of choosing between two billionaires and a millionaires. Just as the Founding Fathers intended.
