Bloomberg. Again.

A strong indication that the big-money donors who fund the Democratic Party are worried about the leftward drift of its rank'n'file is the news that billionaire Michael Bloomberg is talking up a presidential run as a Democrat. According to "Bloomberg May Run for President as a Democrat. His Views on Policing and #MeToo Could Be a Problem.," by Alexander Burns and Sydney Embers,

Mr. Bloomberg has mapped an energetic travel schedule for the midterms that will also take him to battleground states that would be crucial in a presidential race. He will make stops in Michigan, Florida and Pennsylvania and address influential liberal groups, including the League of Conservation Voters and Emily’s List, aides said. And he is weighing a visit to the early primary state of South Carolina.

Mr. Bloomberg is also preparing to reissue a revised edition of his autobiography, “Bloomberg by Bloomberg,” aides confirmed.

Democratic leaders have so far embraced Mr. Bloomberg, giving him a regal reception aimed at ushering him securely into the party. At a climate conference in San Francisco, he stood beside Gov. Jerry Brown of California, a popular Democrat, to show support for the Paris climate agreement. And in an embrace laden with political symbolism, Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, introduced Mr. Bloomberg at two events as a herculean champion of the environment and a master of business and government.

“His name is synonymous with excellence,” Ms. Pelosi said, at a dinner atop the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. “And he knows how to get the job done.”

In a private conversation at the dinner, Mr. Bloomberg pressed Ms. Pelosi to govern the House in a bipartisan way if Democrats take power, he said — a message he also trumpeted publicly in Las Vegas as he pleaded with Democrats to pursue the center. “Candidates who listen to voters in the middle are more likely to reach across the aisle and to get things done,” Mr. Bloomberg argued there.

[snip]

There is considerable skepticism among Democratic leaders, and even some of Mr. Bloomberg’s close allies, that he will actually pursue the presidency, because he has entertained the idea fruitlessly several times before, and shown little appetite for the rough-and-tumble tactics of traditional partisan politics.

[snip]

Close allies of Mr. Bloomberg are divided as to whether it would be wise for him to run for president in 2020, and at least one longtime associate has predicted that he will never seek the White House. Bradley Tusk, Mr. Bloomberg’s former campaign manager who helped him explore an independent candidacy in 2016, declared at a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., that he expected Mr. Bloomberg to toy with running before opting out yet again, multiple people who attended the event confirmed.

Bloomberg's public flirtation with presidential politics has become a structural feature of the two-party system in the United States. He has threatened to run in every presidential election going back to 2004. 

Bloomberg's intention is to maintain popular fealty to an imaginary "center," a fiction that has served the plutocrats well for the last 40 years. After Hillary's win on Super Tuesday in 2016, Bloomberg pulled the plug on a third-party campaign because it appeared that Hillary would sail to victory in the Dem primary over her challenger from Vermont. Needless to say, Bloomberg misjudged badly regarding both Hillary's popularity in the general election, and Trump's.

Bloomberg's not making the same mistake this time around. He is actively campaigning for Democrats in suburban districts. He wants to flip the House in 2018. He'll throw his hat in the ring in 2020 only if  Bernie is on his way to securing the nomination, something I consider unlikely because I think it already belongs to Andrew Cuomo. Bloomberg is fine with Andrew Cuomo.