Centerfield

Bloomberg's Denials

Although my heart says the nominees of each party will be Giuliani/McCain and Obama, my mind says that the nominees will be Romney/Thompson and Hillary. The former, as a centrist, is exciting to me, the latter is down right depressing; furthermore, Mike Bloomberg doesn't help when he tells Dan Rather he doesn't have a shot.

However, Mike Shear raised my spirits a bit this morning:

So what's he up to? Most observers believe he's doing two things: First, he's avoiding the pitfalls of participating actively in a drawn-out White House campaign by fervently denying interest while leaving himself just enough wiggle room to change his mind later.

And second, he's sprinkling presidential pixie dust over all of his other actions and comments. As mayor of New York, he's pursuing an agenda involving guns, the environment and health care, and people are paying more attention to what he says because they think he might -- just might -- run for president in 2008.

In April of 2006, he told friends that he could "easily put up a half-billion" to run for president. Last month, he joked that the only way he could run for president was if "everyone else in the world was dead."

So which is it?

Both, it seems.

Mike follows with an excellent, political dork type graphic that shows Bloomberg's denials in comparison to signs that he really does intend to run. Some find Bloomberg's actions annoying, others might say they are a brilliant way to keep your name in the news while the media is dying to talk about McCain's faltering campaign, Obama's lack of experience, or the fact that Hillary is a *gasp* woman.

Here is my take. What does a bored billionaire do after he has made more money than he needs and successfully ran the most complicated municipality in the world? He runs for President. And you know what, I disagree with his statement to Rather. If the nominees are Hillary and Romney/Thompson, moderate Republicans and liberal Democrats are going to be looking to express their anger. I'm on board if the big two side with what is in my mind and not my heart.