Hotline After Dark -- We Wanna Be Like Mike

Michael Bloomberg continued to be the talk of TV.

Note: Bloomberg was on "NewsHour" last night in a joint interview with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. However, this pre-taped interview was conducted before he made the announcement about his party switch and WH '08 was not discussed.

NBC's Gregory: "Would a third New Yorker be one too many for the country to take?" ("Nightly News," 6/20).

FNC's Cameron: "Some say a Bloomberg candidacy could hurt Republicans the way independent candidate Ross Perot did against the first President Bush back in the 1992 campaign. But as a Democrat for most of his life, with decidedly socially liberal views, he could also take votes from Democrats, not unlike the way Ralph Nader did in 2000 from Al Gore" ("Special Report," 6/20).

MSNBC's Shuster: "Bloomberg might be to appeal in a general election to moderate voters who are turned off by the extreme views that candidates are required to put forward to win the Democratic and Republican nominations" ("Hardball," 6/20).

Washington Post's Balz: "I think he is a long way from having made a decision. I think he wants to continue to raise his visibility, move around the country in a way that he hasn't been able to do, begin to explore, to see whether there's a receptivity. We know there's a receptivity to the general message he's talking about, which is that the political system in Washington is broken. I think he wants to find out whether there's real receptivity to Michael Bloomberg as the person to fix that" ("NewsHour," PBS, 6/20).

Ex-Sen. Al D'Amato: "I believe him right now that he's not. But is he looking at it? Absolutely. Is he measuring it? Absolutely. If he sees that both parties come up with candidates who are fractures, and there's resentment and there's not overwhelming support, then Mike Bloomberg, and only then, would he take a shot" ("Hannity & Colmes," FNC, 6/20). [EMILY GOODIN]