Forget Hillary and Jeb, here's who Wall Street really wants to run for president
At the Yale CEO Summit this week, the talk was of "drafting Bloomberg" however possible.
The former New York City Mayor seems like the perfect solution for Wall Street's problems with the current field of presidential candidates. They see him as a centrist technocrat who adeptly managed one of the most complex cities in the world. They think he understands the global business community.
Rumblings about a Bloomberg run are especially strong at several bulge bracket banks, including Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Merrill once owned a 20% stake in Bloomberg but sold it back to its founder in 2008 to cover losses on its balance sheet.
Why does Wall Street want Bloomberg so bad?
Hillary Clinton's campaign has already faced questions about a separate e-mail server she kept while at the State Department. There have also been questions about how she and her husband operate the Clinton family's charitable organization, the Clinton Foundation.
And while some on Wall Street don't really consider any of those issues particularly detrimental to the Clinton campaign, even more would prefer a candidate with Bloomberg's cleaner record.
They also like that his last name isn't Bush.
On top of all that, Bloomberg has the added plus of being able to enter the race whenever he wants because he can fund his own campaign.
Wall Street isn't alone in encouraging the Mayor to run. The New York Post reported that some New York Democrats are urging Bloomberg to enter the field (which has to smart if you're former New York Senator Hillary Clinton). Apparently he met with party operatives recently and, at the very least, paid attention to what they had to say.
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has also made comments supporting Bloomberg.
"It makes a lot of sense. I mean, there are two wings in the Democratic Party, like there are various wings in the Republican Party. Let's call it the 'progressive' and the 'more centrist' wing. Hillary, for better or for worse, right now represents the 'centrist' wing," Giuliani said.
The desperation for a Bloomberg candidacy, sources say, is pretty palpable.
Executives have been approaching him at charity functions, searching for any sign that he's warming to the idea of a run.
So far, no dice.
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