NY's Bloomberg says White House candidates shun big issues

By Edith Honan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg accused U.S. presidential candidates on Friday of being unwilling to face "the big issues" and said a bipartisan forum next week aims to push contenders to open up to voters.

Bloomberg, who will attend the Unity08 forum in Oklahoma on Monday, said democracy was suffering because candidates were not specifically addressing issues such as healthcare, foreign policy and how to reinvigorate a slowing U.S. economy.

"They're unwilling to face the big issues, and take the risks and give it straight to the public. And that's not good for democracy, and it's certainly not good for America," Bloomberg said during his weekly local radio interview.

Bloomberg has repeatedly said he has no plans to run for president, but many political analysts believe the billionaire is considering running in the November election as an independent who would self-finance his campaign.

That speculation heated up again after it was announced Bloomberg would attend Monday's forum of Unity08, a bipartisan group that believes the Republican and Democratic parties are out of touch and unduly influenced by special interests.

"The issue is how do we get these candidates to really address the issues," he said. "This thing in Oklahoma is not designed to advance any particular agenda, other than the agenda of openness and giving the public the information they need to make intelligent choices."

"I think the people there, I can't speak for all of them, but generally they would probably agree with me to say that there's been much too much partisan bickering. Nobody wants to give anybody else an advantage," he said.

Democrat Sen. Barack Obama and Republican former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Thursday beat rivals by large margins in the Iowa caucuses, which kicked off a state-by-state process to pick each party's candidate for the presidential election. The next state vote will be held January 8 in New Hampshire.