A Moderate Moment

By James Carney

There comes a time in almost every presidential-election cycle when a small but earnest slice of the American political class gathers to lament the tawdry hyperpartisanship taking over U.S. democracy and to call for something new and better, usually in the form of a third-party or independent candidacy. In the 2008 election cycle, the gathering is taking place on Jan. 7, when a group of mostly retired Democratic and Republican officials, all known for their centrist politics, their seriousness of purpose and their commitment to good government, will meet at the University of Oklahoma, where former Senator David Boren is president. He and another former Democratic Senator, Sam Nunn of Georgia, will be joined by 17 like-minded souls, including William Cohen, the former Republican Senator who served as Bill Clinton's Secretary of Defense, and Chuck Hagel, the maverick GOP Senator from Nebraska who plans to leave office after this year. The meeting's purpose: to urge the major party candidates to embrace bipartisan governance.

Or else what? Such efforts usually either come to nothing or result in spirited but ultimately failed third-party White House bids (see John Anderson in 1980 and Ross Perot in 1992 and '96). But 2008 is different because Mike Bloomberg, the Democrat turned Republican turned unaffiliated mayor of New York City, might run--and spend $1 billion of his personal fortune on the effort. Both Nunn and Hagel have suggested they would accept an offer to be Bloomberg's running mate. Though publicly coy, Bloomberg is the animating force behind the Oklahoma meeting, and his aides have been feverishly laying the groundwork for an independent campaign in case, as one describes it, "the window of opportunity opens." And if it doesn't--and it probably won't--moderates will have to wring their hands for another four years.