Oh boy… here comes some real fun now. Just think he can do for the country what he has done to New York City.

President Mike? (Bloomberg to Declare Candidacy for Presdient Feb. 5)

Look out, Hillary and Barack, here comes Mike. No, not Mike Huckabee (though he’d better watch out, too). Mike Bloomberg–Mayor Mike as millions of New Yorkers more or less affectionately call him.

And this time it is for real. Folks close to New York City’s twice-elected mayor suggest that he’s made up his mind to end one of the city’s long-running rumors and become an Independent candidate for president.

The date of his announcement? Pencilled in for right after Super Tuesday–Feb. 5. By then Bloomberg would have a pretty good idea of just who would be lining up against his third-party, self-financed billion-dollar campaign.

So far Bloomberg’s pseudo-candidacy has consisted of just a lot of dodging and faking. He told Dan Rather, quite definitively it sounded, a couple of months ago, that there was no way he’d toss his Yankees’ (or Red Sox) cap in the ring. And he’s been nothing but coy since–rather as he was before he announced he was running for mayor.

But now, having been traveling around America raising his national profile for some months, he’s off on a world tour, doing the same for his international one. He’s been in China, lecturing his hosts and anyone who will listen on the value of removing barriers to information flow and curbing piracy, and in Bali for the U.N. climate change conference.

One big Bloomberg supporter I met at a recent breakfast makes a credible case for a Bloomberg run at the presidency. First, the media-mogul-turned-mayor is prepared to spend up to 20% of his wealth financing an Independent campaign. He is ranked No. 25 on Forbes latest list of richest Americans, with a fortune estimated at $11.5 billion.

Second, as host of other Bloomberg supporters I’ve talked to agree, his money and his mind make a formidable combination–and a formidable candidate, especially if the two main parties pick candidates that are unappealing to centrist voters or seen to be heavily dependent on particular party constituencies.

Full disclosure. I worked for Bloomberg for nearly five years at Bloomberg News. He was a tough, no-compromise, unbending, inflexible individual. He built Bloomberg L.P. from five people in a room with an idea into a worldwide media enterprise by pure force of will and seed capital from his Wall Street severance, plus a venture capital cash infusion from Merrill Lynch. You don’t do that by being a wimp.

A guy who’d spent his whole life dictating to others how they should operate, banning unions, refusing to negotiate, compromise or give way once his mind was made up should have made a catastrophic mayor of America’s most diverse and union-driven city. But Mayor Mike has learned the delicate art of compromise. He’s learned to deal with unions. He understands the needs and wants and desires of the little people who voted him into office.

In short, from an entrepreneur, he’s become a politician. What’s different is that he became one without all the baggage that usually accompanies such a transformation.

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