Michael Bloomberg Can Buy Popularity, but Can He Buy the Presidency?

Here’s the premise: A white, by then 78-year-old New Yorker, who built his fortune on Wall Street and is one of its most vocal defenders, and who’s had issues with African Americans and women, is the answer to what’s going on in the Democratic Party right now.

Oh, and he’s a former Republican. And he’s a terrible campaigner whose signature move is awkwardly asking kids to give him high fives. And he says he’s not sure how true all the accusations against Charlie Rose are. But … he does have close to $50 billion. And he did spend Saturday night in New Hampshire.

So Mike Bloomberg can maybe run for president as a Democrat?

Or, as so many politicos and reporters have been reacting to the talk: Are we really doing this again?

His team thinks he could win over voters who don’t like him, because they are desperate to win—his appeal is right in line with the people in the states the party needs. Donald Trump couldn’t mock him for being too far to the left, and even if the president is somehow worth what he claims to be, Bloomberg is worth at least 15 times as much.

They think he has until around next summer to decide.

We’re at the stage of the Bloomberg-for-president bubble inflation when pretty much no one believes he’ll actually go through with it, but his small circle of media-fascination-stoking virtuosos are excelling at what