Bloomberg's finished, isn't he?

[AltWorlder]

There's no hope for Unity '08 to get him into the race at this point, is there?  And even if he could, I'm doubting you can get Hagel, his best possible veep, to run with him.

[Eraserhead]

I'm sure Obama v. McCain was exactly the kind of race he didn't want.

[memphis]

It's hard to call him finished when he never really began.

[Gustaf]

Bloomberg especially needed the GOP to nominate an hard-line conservative that would turn off suburban moderates (like Huckabee, etc). McCain is reallly a candidate that kills any serious chance of his.

[perdedor]

There's no hope for Unity '08 to get him into the race at this point, is there?  And even if he could, I'm doubting you can get Hagel, his best possible veep, to run with him.

I didn't know that they were still doing the Unity 08' thing. I always thought it was a silly idea, what elected official of a major party is going to surrender their seat to run with a elected official of another party. This would sink like a lead balloon.

[Stranger in a strange land]

Bloomberg especially needed the GOP to nominate an hard-line conservative that would turn off suburban moderates (like Huckabee, etc). McCain is reallly a candidate that kills any serious chance of his.

I think he was hoping for Clinton vs Huckabee or Thompson, now that it looks likely that McCain will get the republican nomination and at least possible that Obama will get the dem nomination. If there are 2 candidates with wide moderate and independent appeal, there's no real reason for him to run. I think he'd previously hinted that he wouldn't run if McCain or Obama got the nominations of their respective parties.

[Duke 🇺🇸]

He wouldn't garner too much support in a Obama v. McCain race. I know some disgruntled conservatives who may vote for him over McCain, but they are in the minority.

[Stranger in a strange land]

He wouldn't garner too much support in a Obama v. McCain race. I know some disgruntled conservatives who may vote for him over McCain, but they are in the minority.

why? Bloomberg is WAY more liberal than McCain on just about every issue.

[Erc]

Bloomberg may still consider jumping in if the Democratic side gets really nasty and divisive and he tries to jump in to appeal to the supporters of the eventual loser.

Problem is, if you want ballot access, you're jumping in without knowing who you're running against...and you're essentially limiting yourself to Democrats & Independents (with McCain in the race, Bloomberg gets no support from Republicans outside of the tristate, and very little in the tristate).

[Mr. Morden]

I think Obama v. McCain would kill any chance of him running.  Clinton v. McCain is less than ideal for him, but he can always hope that McCain's support for the Iraq War will eventually hurt his appeal with Independents.  The problem is that we may not know for several months whether Clinton or Obama wins the Democratic nomination, and it would be too late for Bloomberg to get in at that point.

Though according to stories like this:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--bloomberg-20080204feb04,0,1393443.story

Bloomberg might very well start the ballot petition drive before he's officially made up his mind on whether to run.  That's actually not too different from Perot's approach in 1992.  I don't think Perot was an officially declared candidate at the time he started the ballot petition drive.