The assembled—which included such luminaries as Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel, former Florida senator Bob Graham, former New Jersey governor Christine Todd Whitman, and consultant and presidential granddaughter Susan Eisenhower—met for several hours Sunday night, then unveiled a manifesto for change on Monday at a panel talk and press conference. The document described the United States as a nation suffering from political paralysis, plummeting approval ratings abroad, out-of-control budget and trade deficits, a military stretched thin, and crumbling infrastructure. They appealed to this election’s presidential candidates, among others, to stop the downward slide—asking the eventual victor to appoint a “truly” bipartisan cabinet, with critical posts going to the most qualified people regardless of political affiliation. “For the first time in history, polls tell us that a majority of Americans no longer believe that our future will be as great as our past,” said former Oklahoma senator David Boren, now president of Oklahoma University. It is time to stop politics as usual, “which seeks to divide for political gain,” he continued. Then he added, rather dramatically, “Bring us together! Bring us together! Bring us together …”
Lofty sentiments indeed. But the group’s manifesto risked being overshadowed by speculation about one attendee—New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg—and whether he was sufficiently perturbed by the state of the presidential campaign to actually join it this spring.
It was Bloomberg’s second visit to Oklahoma University, and the gathering’s hosts, former senators Boren and Sam Nunn, have hinted, along with Bloomberg’s aides, that he might consider a presidential bid. Bloomberg came bearing New York cheesecakes (transfat-free, of course). Many of the citizens and journalists gathered in the auditorium came hoping that Bloomberg would use the occasion to launch an independent campaign. But the air went out of the balloon when Bloomberg stated flatly, “Look, I’m not a candidate.”
Not yet, anyway. Boren noted after the talk that Bloomberg has plenty of time to get on the ballot. “A candidate with his resources could get into the race in March or even later,” Boren said. Still, Bloomberg’s emphatic denial was a disappointment to Elmer Million, a 67-year-old former conservative Republican who registered as an independent for the first time six years ago in disgust, he said, over President Bush’s administration. Million tried to muscle his wheelchair to the front of the security line, distraught that he would miss Bloomberg’s big announcement. “That would make ‘08 the year of the independent,” he said. Bloomberg might be inclined to go for it if Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are on the ballot this fall, Million speculated. But he believes that if Illinois Sen. Barack Obama wins his party’s nomination, Bloomberg will stay home. “No politician wants to stand in the way of the first black man for president,” Million said.
With Bloomberg staying on the sidelines, the group returned to its central mission—which was, well, not entirely clear. A number of attendees decried the partisan warfare marring American politics today. “Partisan politics has gotten us to where we are now,” said Melissa Rabe, a Dennis Kucinich supporter who drove in from nearby Cole, Okla., to attend the talk. “The Democrats were elected in ‘06 and nothing happened. We need unity.” Others on hand bemoaned the lack of progress on the big issues of the day. “Our Congress owes the American people something more than an energy bill that says we should change our light bulbs in four years,” said former Texas governor Mark White. After loud applause he added, “We’re a greater nation than that.” But then, anyone interested in those themes could have heard them discussed at length at the two parties’ debate in New Hampshire Saturday night.
Some in attendance were interested in discussing the mechanics of mounting a third-party or independent presidential campaign. But then, another group, calling itself Unity ‘08, seems more focused on that. Unity ‘08 is organizing a presidential ticket to be selected this June via online ballot—which could well produce a Democratic-Republican pairing. Indeed, the dynamics of the Norman session served at times as a reminder that it’s rather difficult to get people calling themselves “independent” to agree on an agenda and band together to carry it out. There was disagreement about whether the meeting should even be called a “bipartisan forum”; Angus King, a former governor of Maine, felt it should be called a “nonpartisan” forum, since many independents like himself are fed up with both parties.
Bob Graham insisted after the gathering that “this is not a third-party or independent candidacy gathering. Most people here believe that the best way to achieve results is to work with the existing two-party system, not to throw it out and start fresh.” After all, he warned, another New Yorker, this one named Theodore Roosevelt, ran for president as a third-party candidate after losing the Republican nomination to William Taft. If Teddy couldn’t get elected as a third-party candidate, Graham said, then “I’m not optimistic that anyone can.” Take that, Mike Bloomberg.
