Bloomberg News Du Jour

Two Bloomberg-oriented articles have caught my eye in the past couple of days.

First, from MSNBC, we see that Bloomberg could very well be a man after my own heart — a politics and stats junkie:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has quietly been polling and conducting a highly sophisticated voter analysis in all 50 states as he decides whether to launch an independent presidential bid, associates said Wednesday.

The exhaustive data collection started months ago, and when the review begins shortly, it will provide the data-obsessed billionaire businessman with the information he will use to decide whether to make a third-party run for the White House.  [...]

Using the microtargeting model, research firms working for Bloomberg are gathering comprehensive information on voters throughout the country, such has who owns a home, has children in college, where they vacation, type of car or computer and past political support. All the puzzle pieces will then be arranged to create a picture of each individual.

Most of the data already exists in commercial databases that the multibillionaire Bloomberg can simply purchase. It will then be analyzed to determine how each voter fits into several categories: “strong supporter,” “persuadable supporter” or “potential volunteer.”

A data-driven campaign –  I imagine that even Karl Rove would nod in approval.  However, hopefully the folks doing the analysis on the data won’t lose sight of the fact that voters do not always behave rationally or as advertised, which tends to cloud up the analysis a little bit.

Meanwhile, looking at the future of Unity 08, this story can be seen at the New York Daily News:

A source familiar with the Bloomberg for president movement says the bipartisan Unity08 effort is poised to shut down its Web site, reconstitute as a Draft Bloomberg site and launch its own 50-state signature-gathering operation on behalf of the supposedly reluctant would-be independent presidential candidate. [...]

It’s unclear whether this would be some kind of publicity stunt for Unity08, which has been ignored, or even flat-out ridiculed, in some corners, or a real, honest-to-goodness sign that Bloomberg is serious about running for president and not simply trying to maintain relevancy in his lame-duck years.

Another sign of more fun to be found late this winter, perhaps?