Michael Bloomberg is at it again

In 2016, Bloomberg put together a team of two dozen staffers. They ran polls in various states, developed TV ads, and even considered a potential running mate. The candidacy’s raison d’etre was to offer a third path to voters if Donald Trump won the Republican nomination and Bernie Sanders won the Democratic nod. When it was clear Hillary Clinton would pull it out, Bloomberg stepped back. It’s unlikely his opinion of Trump or Sanders improved since then, and he probably doesn’t consider Elizabeth Warren much of a contrast with Bernie. Hence, Bloomberg is threatening a run once more — this time not as a third-party candidate but as a Democratic contender.

The 2016 election wasn’t Bloomberg’s first flirtation. A 2015 piece in the Atlantic summed up all the times Bloomberg was rumored to be considering a presidential run. Since 2006, there have been whispers of a coming Bloomberg campaign for president every year except 2009. “The reasons are always the same,” reads the article. “Business interests want somebody who’s run a big business (not that that correlates with successful presidency); who can self-fund a campaign; and who will be fiscally conservative, unlike most Democrats, but socially moderate, unlike most Republicans.”

That makes sense, but whether there is space for Mike Bloomberg in the Democratic field of 2020 is a different question. Primarily known nationally during his mayoralty for nanny-state proposals such as his soda “ban,” which was overturned as unconstitutional, and later for his anti-gun lobbying group Everytown for Gun Safety, Bloomberg’s path to the presidency doesn’t seem obvious.

Indeed, his very entry into politics was largely a fluke. His ascent began on Sept. 11, 2001. The mayoral primaries were scheduled for that day, and Bloomberg was poised to win the Republican nomination and follow that up with a crushing loss to whomever the Democrats picked. The terror attacks positioned Bloomberg as the heir apparent to the hero of the hour, Rudy Giuliani, who threw his support behind Bloomberg.

It helped that Bloomberg’s opponent, Mark Green, was wildly unlikable. Green made giant missteps during the campaign, including releasing an ad alleging that Bloomberg convinced female employees to have abortions. In the ad, the screen goes dark and the words “kill it, kill it, kill it” appear. For a city shaken up by a major terror attack, terrifying ads including the words “kill it” only succeeded in killing Green’s campaign.

He ran for reelection two more times, changing his party registration (to Independent) and then the rules to give himself a third term.

There’s a moment in the 2001 documentary Campaign Confidential about the mayoral race that year that stands out as a sign of how Bloomberg would approach a presidential campaign. The film closes with all the candidates singing New York, New York individually into the camera. Politicians doing silly things for the camera, showing they can be fun-loving and have a good time — it’s standard. Bloomberg refused to sing, closing the door on the camera as they tried to film him.

It’s hard to imagine such a serious man eating pork chops on a stick in Iowa or doing any of the humiliating campaigning that is customary for most presidential candidates. Of course, it was hard to imagine Trump in dress shoes at the Iowa State Fair, but there he was in 2016, retail politicking with the best of them. If Trump can do it his way, arriving by helicopter, choosing large arena events over more intimate voter meet-and-greets, maybe Bloomberg can too.

That is the irony of Trump’s success: He may have finally convinced Bloomberg to challenge him. Still, Bloomberg can’t simply parachute into the Democratic presidential primary and expect everyone to get in line.

In a 2013 interview, Bloomberg was asked if he was sure that he would not run for president. “Yes. It’s just impossible,” he said. “I am 100% convinced that you cannot in this country win an election unless you are the nominee of one of the two major parties. The second thing I am convinced of is that I could not get through the primary process with either party.”

He wasn’t wrong then. And the Democratic Party has only moved leftward since. The possibility of a billionaire moderate making it out with the nomination is remote.

Bloomberg would enter a primary field of candidates who spend time debating whether billionaires should even exist and, if they must, how much of their money they should be allowed to keep. Even before his announcement, Bloomberg’s fellow Democrats prepped their lines of attack. In 2018, his successor, Mayor Bill de Blasio, said Bloomberg is “not a real Democrat” and that Americans wouldn’t want another billionaire.

When Bloomberg ran for mayor of New York City in 2001, it was seen largely as a vanity project. He chose the Republican side because the Democratic primary was crowded and the GOP side wasn’t. (Full disclosure: I volunteered on the campaign of Bloomberg’s only Republican rival, Herman Badillo.) But he governed like a real moderate in a very left-leaning city. It’s unlikely there’s room for someone like that in the Democratic field in the middle of the Trump presidency, which has only further agitated left-wingers and other Children of the Bern to want a wrecking ball of their own.

Bloomberg has problems beyond the Left. He’s been back to running his company for the last five years and all that that entails. During a September appearance on Firing Line, Bloomberg defended China from the charge they’re not doing enough on climate change and laughably said that Xi Jinping is not a dictator. Trump appealed to the middle in America by promising to be tough on China. Bloomberg’s soft-pedaling of China’s abuses doesn’t fit our current moment. It reads like another powerful rich guy pandering to the Chinese for market access. Even LeBron James got pushback for doing that, and Mike Bloomberg is no LeBron James.

The same week Bloomberg made a move toward the presidential race, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick did the same, and Hillary Clinton noted that “many, many, many people” want her to run. The Democratic field is still fluid, and with one NYC mayor dropping out, another considers taking a crack at it. His entry would be an implicit critique of the rest of the field. And after more than a decade of preparing for such a candidacy, his rivals will be ready for him.

Karol Markowicz is a columnist for the New York Post.