Centrist grumbles may rouse third party

On Monday, a bipartisan group of these elders is meeting at the University of Oklahoma to urge candidates to set a less divisive tone and stop catering to their narrow political bases.

That centrist yearning -- an oft-recurring theme in American politics -- is shared by Bloomberg, who denies White House ambitions but whose aides are exploring a possible independent bid for president.

He plans to attend the Oklahoma forum and may find a receptive audience.

"The main point is to talk about the need for a new tone and greater bipartisanship," said former Rep. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), who also plans to attend. "Whether it is the makings of a third-party movement, that's for time to develop."

Other analysts, dismissing the prospects for bipartisanship in a bitterly contested election year, say that there is little hope for third-party candidates in general -- and Bloomberg in particular.

"If there is space for a third-party candidate in 2008, it's not obvious that Mayor Bloomberg fits the bill," said Will Marshall, president of the Progressive Policy Institute, a centrist Democratic think tank.

"He's not identified with a particular cause that roils public passion."

The results of Thursday's Iowa caucuses could narrow the political space for a possible Bloomberg candidacy, because it elevated two candidates -- Republican Mike Huckabee and Democrat Barack Obama -- who had broken out of the establishment mold.

Obama has echoed Bloomberg's call for a less polarized political climate, and Huckabee has challenged key elements of the GOP's political orthodoxy.

But Douglas E. Schoen -- a pollster who has worked with Bloomberg and is author of the upcoming book "Declaring Independence," about the possibility of a third-party candidacy in 2008 -- said that the Iowa results could reinforce the case for Bloomberg to run.

The success of Obama and Huckabee, he says, underscored the sense that people want a different, bridge-building voice in the polarized two-party debate.