The loathsome prospect of a Bloomberg presidency

Ready for government by machine learning?

Michael Bloomberg.

After many years of manful effort to see how it could possibly be otherwise, I have become convinced that Michael Bloomberg is not, in fact, an algorithm. The former mayor of New York City is an all-too-real 76-year-old billionaire moderate Republican who just happens to believe all the things that a computer programed to outrage right-wing anti-nanny staters and well-meaning liberals alike would line up behind.

Equally real, it appears, are Bloomberg's long-rumored presidential ambitions. It looks increasingly likely that he is going to run for president in 2020, presumably as a Democrat. Is it too much to hope for that in a hypothetical contest between two billionaires we could get some kind of gentlemen's agreement to suspend all presidential fundraising? This faint possibility is the only heartening thing about the prospect of Bloomberg's return to politics.

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Matthew Walther

Matthew Walther is a national correspondent at The Week. His work has also appeared in First Things, The Spectator of London, The Catholic Herald, National Review, and other publications. He is currently writing a biography of the Rev. Montague Summers. He is also a Robert Novak Journalism Fellow.