Is Bloomberg On McCain's List? What About Obama's?

New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg famously flirted with a presidential run before apparently concluding that it wasn't a good idea. Now he is being discussed as a possible vice presidential candidate – if not by the likely nominees themselves, at least in the media.

The latest what-about-Bloomberg speculation comes from New York Magazine's John Heilemann, who suggests that the mayor could be a plausible choice for either Barack Obama or John McCain. (Incidentally, when was the last time it was even possible to imagine that the same man could potentially fit the bill for either major party candidate?) Bloomberg, Heilemann notes, would give both candidates more credibility when it comes to handling the economy, potentially the defining issue of the election. Here's his case for McCain/Bloomberg:

He would bolster McCain in critical swing states such as Florida, New Jersey (a state the Republicans have hopes of putting into play), and Pennsylvania—and also in California, where the McCain–Bloomberg–Arnold Schwarzenegger troika might compel Obama to spend time and money in a state that should be a gimme. He would enhance McCain's image as a moderate, a maverick, and provide him with a riposte to the charge that he's a clone of George W. Bush. (Is there any human being on Earth less like Dick Cheney than Bloomberg?) And if the mayor were willing to plow some of his fortune into the race—assuming election law allows it—he would let McCain close or, if he were feeling generous, eradicate completely the vast disparity between the two sides when it comes to moola.

If the central doubt about Obama is his lack of experience (and, in particular, executive experience), Bloomberg would provide a degree of reassurance. Picking him would substantiate and reinforce Obama's message of pragmatism and post-partisanship. And he would go a long way toward mitigating Obama's problem with Jewish voters, a dilemma brought on by a combination of his association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, the nuthouse rumors that he is a closet Muslim, and his willingness to talk to anti-Israel crackpots such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.