Eye of the needle

Just what we need, another messianic, self-obsessed, whining, millionaire/billionaire New York mayor who wants to "lead" on the national stage.

He offered one of his auto-pilot denials of interest (“I am not a candidate”), then tossed off one of his broadest critiques yet of the declared field just as the voting is finally about to get under way in Iowa, saying that none of the candidates had sufficiently explained how he or she would solve pressing domestic and international issues.

Mr. Bloomberg obliquely attacked potential rivals like Hillary Rodham Clinton (“Some people are in favor of free trade and then walk away from it”), Mitt Romney (“One guy had a plan that we don’t know if it will work, but then he walks away from his own plan,” referring to health care) and Rudolph W. Giuliani (“‘I’m going to be tougher than the next guy’ is not an answer to what you would do”). Then he cautioned against reading his comments as that sort of critique.

“Don’t say, ‘O.K., Bloomberg’s criticizing A, B or C on either side,’” he said. “It’s all of them.”

Like Krugman, I don't get it. His criticisms are about the Republican candidates. The issues on which he feels we need bipartisan (or tripartisan, I guess) agreement on -- health care, the deficit, trade -- are all areas in which a large majority of Americans say they trust Democrats more to address.

But I also don't get this fascination with Bloomberg. His time as mayor has been unspectacular, with his major accomplishment having erased the $5 billion budget deficit Giuliani left him by raising property taxes.