Another Billionaire Intent On Putting the Democrats in the White House

This article from the May 15, 2007 Washington Times is quite worrisome:

New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is prepared to spend an unprecedented $1 billion of his own $5.5 billion personal fortune for a third-party presidential campaign, personal friends of the mayor tell The Washington Times.

"He has set aside $1 billion to go for it," confided a long-time business adviser to the Republican mayor. "The thinking about where it will come from and do we have it is over, and the answer is yes, we can do it."

Another personal friend and fellow Republican said in recent days that Mr. Bloomberg, who is a social liberal and fiscal conservative, has "lowered the bar" and upped the ante for a final decision on making a run.

The mayor has told close associates he will make a third-party run if he thinks he can influence the national debate and has said he will spend up to $1 billion. Earlier, he told friends he would make a run only if he thought he could win a plurality in a three-way race and would spend $500 million -- or less than 10 percent of his personal fortune.

People that call themselves "social liberal and fiscal conservative" might be mistaken for libertarians, but Bloomberg certainly is not that. His gun control ferocity alone should tell you that he is not libertarian. If he was running because he expected to win, I could perhaps see this as an ambitious billionaire trying to buy the White House, but the article makes it clear that he intends to be a spoiler:

The Bloomberg team is studying the strategies of Mr. Perot, the Texas billionaire whose 1992 presidential campaign helped President Clinton to win the White House with 43 percent of the popular vote.

"Mike has been meeting with Ross Perot's most senior people about how they did an independent run in 1992," the Bloomberg business adviser said on condition of anonymity so as to avoid appearing to speak for Mr. Bloomberg.

My guess is that Bloomberg is considering blowing a billion dollars to pull enough votes from the Republican nominee so that the Democratic nominee will win the White House. Being a billionaire, his natural inclinations are going to be with the Democrats, and against any sort of conservative. If George Soros were a native-born citizen, I suspect that he would pull the same stunt to make sure that the left wins.