Close The Door — Close It! Close It!

I’m guessing the “empirical” doesn’t include the fact that Bloomberg’s final remaining positive attribute — a meaningless nod to “nonpartisanship”* — has been overtaken by events, specifically McCain’s meaningless nod to “nonpartisanship” and Obama’s meaningless nod to “nonpartisanship”:

A venture capitalist who founded a company expressly to support a presidential run by Mayor Bloomberg, and who is conducting nationwide voter analysis for the mayor, says his data show that Mr. Bloomberg can win the White House.

James Robinson IV, the founder of the technology and data analysis company Symposia Group, told The New York Sun he believes that “empirically, he can win,” even with the emergence of Senator McCain as the Republican front-runner.

After starting the company in December 2006, Mr. Robinson’s team, which he says includes people at the “top of the game” in search intelligence and database analysis, spent more than nine months building a technology system that attempts to gauge the thinking of Americans on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood, and even house-by-house, basis.

. . .

Mr. Bloomberg says repeatedly that he is “not a candidate,” but his high-profile appearances and speeches indicate he is trying to keep his options open. He did, however, deviate from his standard denial yesterday, when speaking to employees of Google at the company’s offices in the city.

After saying that he’s not a candidate for president, he went further than usual, adding that he’ll “stay that way.”

His subtle change in tone may be linked to Mr. McCain’s surge, which some political observers say makes it less likely Mr. Bloomberg will run.

Scott Rasmussen, the president of Rasmussen Reports, which conducts presidential polls, said he is fairly confident Mr. McCain will be the Republican nominee and that if Mr. Bloomberg is taking a serious look at the field right now, “he is seeing the door closing.”

. . .

Mr. Bloomberg’s possible presidential aspirations appeared to take a hit yesterday when Governor Schwarzenegger endorsed Mr. McCain for president. The California governor had said previously that he would not back a candidate in the race, leading some political observers to speculate that he was holding out to see if Mr. Bloomberg jumped into the fray.

Both advocate a nonpartisan, pragmatic approach to government, and Mr. Schwarzenegger has called Mr. Bloomberg his “soulmate.”

*And if you want to start talking about the Mayor’s nonpartisan legacy, examine the record.