If you’re worried that your white, male 76-year-old candidate might not be able to cut the mustard, who do you bring in? A white, male 77-year-old candidate, of course. Or at least that seems to be the thinking of billionaire New Yorker Michael Bloomberg.

According to sources close to the former New York City Mayor, Bloomberg is still “seriously thinking about” running for President, probably as a Democrat, but only if Joe Biden appears to be seriously struggling against Elizabeth Warren. Or perhaps only if Joe Biden drops out of the race. (CNBC)

Mike Bloomberg might end up running for president, after all.

Bloomberg, the billionaire former mayor of New York, has indicated to associates in recent weeks that Joe Biden’s recent struggles against Sen. Elizabeth Warren are making him rethink his decision to stay out of the 2020 Democratic primary. That’s according to people familiar with the discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations were deemed private.

Bloomberg has signaled he’s “still looking at” running for president, but people close him say that the only way he could even go down that path is if Biden’s fortunes suffer so much that he drops out before or during the early stages of the primary.

Personally, I’m not putting a lot of stock in this report. The most likely explanation for this story is that Bloomberg is doing what he always seems to do. He likes to have people talking about him running for president because it keeps his name in the headlines and it’s good for business. It’s the same thing Rudy Giuliani always used to do except for the one time he actually did run. (And what a titanic disaster that turned out to be.) And does anyone think Joe Biden would seriously drop out before Iowa absent some major health malfunction?

But just for the sake of argument, let’s say that Bloomberg is serious. How would that work? If he’s really talking about taking a shot at the Democratic nomination, he’s already almost out of time. People are going to start voting in Iowa and New Hampshire in barely three months. He’d have to get on the ballot in all fifty states starting from scratch. I know the guy has a lot of money, but does he have the national campaign infrastructure to gather all the signatures and do the rest of the groundwork required for a serious run in that amount of time?

And how would the Democratic base react to this? They’d be looking at a new candidate who is an elderly, male, white, New York City billionaire. Hrmmm… that sounds familiar for some reason. Are primary voters going to be flocking to someone the rest of the field will immediately label as the “Democratic Trump?” Also, one of the things dogging Biden right now is, at least in part, a growing concern over his age and how sharp he still is. Bloomberg is even older than Biden (though not by much).

I’m just not buying it. As I mentioned at the top, I think this was just a case of some bored reporters looking for a story while waiting for tonight’s debates. And Bloomberg is always more than happy to oblige the press with a good headline about him “considering” a presidential bid.