Richard Whalen

Even while mugging for the cameras, New York’s second-term Mayor Michael Bloomberg maintains that he is not running for the presidency in 2008. But, the whispers at dinner parties and media speculations and feature stories continue to grow, fueled by voters’ uncertainties about the current crop of candidates.

And, Bloomberg certainly stands to benefit from the present candidates’ nastiness and good old fashion mud-slinging, accusations and name-calling, especially if he waits until March 5 when the electorate will be exhausted by the whole bunch.

At first glance, quiet-spoken Michael Bloomberg does not seem an imposing candidate. At 65, Boston-born Bloomberg, is a short (5’7”), stocky Jewish entrepreneur who received a M.B.A at Harvard. He has spent his entire life and career in New York City starting with Salomon Brothers in 1966. He founded Bloomberg L.P. in 1981.

A lifelong Democrat, he ran for mayor as a Republican to get on the ballot in 2001, spending $74 million; and in 2005, he spent $85 million to keep the office. In June 2007, he surprised everyone by announcing that he was leaving the Republican Party to become an Independent. With a personal fortune of more than 5 billion dollars, he is able to finance a nation-wide presidential campaign solely from his own resources, down to the last bumper sticker.

Bloomberg doesn’t want to be a spoiler or a protest candidate, Ben Casselman wrote last week in the Wall Street Journal and now hints that he may well run as a Democrat. Mitchell Moss, a New York University professor who has served as an adviser to Bloomberg says: “…he’ll only run if he can win.”

A recent CBS/NYTimes poll says: “With the looming housing crisis, a slowdown in job creation, and a likely cut in interest rates by the Federal Reserve, America’s assessment of the condition of the national economy has dropped considerably since October. For the first time in over a year, a majority of Americans – 57 percent - thinks the economy is in at least somewhat bad shape, up eight points from October. Positive assessment of the economy has likewise dropped eight points to 42 percent - the lowest it has been in over four years.”

Bloomberg too foresees a deepening economic and financial crisis crippling the U.S. economy and is confident that he is qualified to preside over the economy’s rescue – the same kind of turnaround he achieved in neglected, semi-bankrupt Manhattan. Bloomberg, well-known as an effective non-partisan, nuts-and-bolts centrist mayor, has demonstrated his capacity to understand the most complex economic and financial matters.

A superb administrator who methodically executes his business plans, says he would be delighted to have the opportunity to “fix things” in Washington. His reputation for getting things done would be his strongest asset as America’s crisis president. At the center of the vast bureaucracy of the modern Executive Branch of the U.S. government, Bloomberg would coordinate his managerial genius and operate in an entirely new environment -- at once revolutionizing the presidency and making it work in unprecedented ways.

Bloomberg recognizes his lack of foreign policy experience and is reportedly being tutored in foreign affairs by Nancy Soderberg, a former U.S. official at the United Nations who is close to Senator Edward Kennedy.

Bloomberg has quietly asked key advisers and staff aides not to make any personal plans beyond next March. And it was just reported in The New York Post that his aides have been reaching out to consultants from his past campaigns especially those involved in creating the mayor’s previous TV spots.

According to Bloomberg, he believes that the polarizing Democratic and Republican candidates will create a deep public desire for his brand of personal non-partisanship and centrist leadership. Will he answer destiny’s call?

Maybe I have spent too much time at the eggnog. However, I believe if Bloomberg answered the call in whatever party he chose, American would elect him. In the meantime, I’ll be taking my “long winters nap” with those sugar plums dancing in my head, hoping.