Bloomberg would likely be able to grab many social moderate Republicans who feel that Huckabee, a former Baptist minister with very strongly conservative views on abortion and gay marriage, is too far to the right to support.

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And Bloomberg could easily co-opt Obama’s driving message of change.

Bloomberg must also look hard at the results of the Iowa caucuses on Thursday in which the two candidates preaching experience and competency — Mitt Romney and Hillary Rodham Clinton — were trounced by Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama, two candidates relying more on inspiration and an appeal to their party’s ideological base.

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Qualities like competence and problem-solving are nice in a candidate, but don’t bring out the populist anger that has propelled third-party candidates like Ross Perot and Ralph Nader.