President Mike?

So there's talk of a hometown mayor running for president. A mayor who is a republican but not really so much. A mayor with unimaginable name recognition. That's right - Mike Bloomberg. You thought I was going to say Rudy? Ok, they talk about him too, but that's old news. No, we're here to talk about the prospects of Mayor Mike (as he honestly wants to be known as).
For those of you from out-of-town, here's the 411 on Bloomberg:
- He's rich. OMFG he's rich. Billions. Talk that he could crop, I dunno, $500 million on a presidential run. No matter how crazy, you cannot rule out anyone with that kind of brie.
- He's not really a republican. Sure, he ran as one, and he remains one. But he switched over from being a democrat right before the election because there were about 10 people looking for the Dem nomination and -8 for the GOP.
- He gives money to republicans. You can see a list of contributions here. That's $$ to Bush and the RNC. Boo, Mayor Mike! Also, he brought those assholes here for the convention in 2004 so they could (allegedly) spend their nasty money in our city. Wha they really did was pimp out ground zero to sell their sick, soulless agenda, but anyway...
- But you'll note that he's given a lot more to Dems too. Including Maurice Hinchey from upstate NY, and Hinchey is super-left. Also NARAL. I think the only conclusion you can reach is that he's rich, and can give a lot of money to anyone.
- He will never, ever win a single republican primary. He supports (strongly!) gay marriage. He just gave a speech about scientific and medical breakthroughs and how important they are. He believes in technology and innovation. He raises taxes if that's what he thinks is needed. He is on a pretty serious crusade against guns and gun manufacturers and seller. So if he runs, it'll be as an Independant.
- We don't hate him. We don't like him, per se, but we don't hate him. He's just so...inoffensive. Maybe because he's really short? Whatever it is, you can't get excited about him one way or the other. Honestly, he is the man that charisma forgot.
- He's done some kind of hinky things with the schools, there's a serious affordable housing situation going on and he clearly likes big business, but on the other hand the 311 system (the non-emergency all city services hotline) is the best thing ever, the smoking ban turned out great, he's closing more of the parks to cars, and he may yet institute a congestion charge for Manhattan like they have in London.

In sum, I don't know what to think of him. He sort of occupies the political space between between McCain and Gore. But with billions. Stay tuned.