Join us
the kicker

America, Will You Accept This Rose?

AP fantasizes about the “Bachelor President”
December 12, 2007

Sign up for The Media Today, CJR’s daily newsletter.

In an Associated Press article headlined, “Bloomberg: A Bachelor President?” reporter Sara Kugler writes: “For all of his billions, Mayor Michael Bloomberg lacks one thing all the current presidential candidates proudly display: a spouse.”

That and, of course, a candidacy.

Kugler reports, with input from a political science professor, that it’s “very difficult to say how the American public will accept” a bachelor candidate (shouldn’t that be “would accept?”), it’s “hard to guess how the nation would react.”

Despite the difficulty of so guessing, Kugler soldiers on, chasing down various Bloomberg ex-girlfriends and securing their endorsements of their onetime beau. Eventually Kugler allows that “there is speculation that [Bloomberg] won’t run for president without first marrying [his long-time girlfriend Diana] Taylor.” As long as the AP is reporting speculation, what about speculation that he won’t run for president at all?

Has America ever needed a media defender more than now? Help us by joining CJR today.

Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.