Michael Bloomberg.

[saltpoint]

Poll question: Michael Bloomberg.

[rwheeler31]

1. Who is he?

[saltpoint]

2. New York City's once-upon-a-time Democrat, then a Republican (to

run for NYC mayor), and now an independent, and one of the richest people in the world.

[tonysam]

3. He's a filthy rich asshole, who, with his right-hand man Joel Klein,

is destroying the NYC public school system, which will be the model for ALL school districts nationwide.

[saltpoint]

4. It will be interesting to see what Bloomberg actually does in the next

few years.

His recent victory over Thompson was a great deal closer than he likely thought it would be.

On the other hand, he is uniquely positioned to make an almost-entirely self-financed independent run for the presidency.

Among likely contenders at this point would be President Obama, in the strongest position IMO, but now taking incoming shrapnel from progressives. There is an unlikely but possible left-wing challenge to him from within the party, but apart from Dean and Kucinich in that order, I'm not seeing it, at least not so far. Possible but unlikely.

The Green Party might actually find someone who's persuasive this time. Cynthia McKinney was a demonstrable failure for them last time. If they field a persuasive ticket they might get farther than they have to date. If they do not find a persuasive ticket, they'll be more marginal than ever.

The Pukes will run some hideous ticket or other, no matter who they nominate. Romney has money. Huckabee has charm. Not charm that charms us, but charm that charms fundie Puke nutbags and crazies. I'm all but writing Palin off. She's explosively stupid. She could bolt and try a third party burn-the-Constitution campaign but IMO she is not going to be anywhere close to winning the GOP nomination. As an indie, she'd draw the nutbags from the GOP base and hand the election to Obama.

If the Teabaggers are even crazier than they seem to be already they'll break away from Romney's Mormon profile and run Palin or some other kook to the right of the Republican ticket, which would put them so far Right that they'd fall off the graph. They'd draw 5 to 9% or so, depending on how weak the regular GOP ticket is. The Teabaggers make a good deal of noise for such a small group of people.

The only candidacy that could scramble the field IMO is Bloomberg's because he can afford to run one to begin with, because he has nothing else to do, because he used to be an Eagle scout and likely sees himself as the adult-in-charge, and because his political profile matches the voters' perception that either major party is insufficiently representative of their interests. Bloomberg, if he wished, could purchase a supportive national political network almost overnight. A Jewish multimillionaire who is politically independent will draw some significant percentages from both major parties' demographics. Media coverage would not be a problem. He could sign a check on Tuesday and by the end of the week there could be Michael Bloomberg political posters along every highway in the land.

He is not my favorite politician, to be sure. But I think he bears watching because he has the bucks, the timely profile, and nothing else to do.