Robert Reich Little-Man-Big-Ideas Award

With the freak show of presidential politics ramping up a year and a half before the next election, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has already ruled himself out of the race.

"How can a 5-foot-7, divorced, billionaire Jew running as an independent from New York possibly have a chance?" Bloomberg mused recently to Roger Simon of The Politico.

The divorce thing is no real barrier, and the height thing I will deal with later. It is the "billionaire Jew" thing that might come into play if he tries to self-finance the race, as in "Does that Jew really think he can buy the American presidency?" Don't think that will come up? No? What country are you living in? I do not suggest anti-Semitism should keep Bloomberg from running for president. I do suggest that as with Romney's religion, Barack Obama's race and Hillary Rodham Clinton's gender, Bloomberg's religion (in a nation that has never elected a Jew to the presidency) is a mountain for him to climb.

Besides his Jewish heritage, Bloomberg would also be running as a third party candidate which means, he is already a loser. But, could somebody who has amassed $5 billion from nothing, tamed New York City without crushing the civil rights of certain minorities, really be a loser? It seems, that his life is an exact polar opposite of George W. Bush; everything Bloomberg touches, turns to gold; everything W. touches turns to shit.

The real problem with Bloomberg might be the fact that he is a pragmatist who doesn't rely on empty rhetoric, which voters eat up election after election. If he doesn't run, and it seems that he won't, let's hope he finds a prominent seat in the next democratic government's cabinet.