Bloomberg's Billions Make Instant Player

One day after Mike Bloomberg announced he's ditching the GOP, the will-he-or-won't-he titters are building to a roar. The Post reports that Bloomberg is prepared to spend at least half-a-billion dollars on an independent presidential run—ten times what Perot spent in '92—making him the "the billion-dollar elephant in the room," writes the Politico's Ben Smith.

Some are still holding out hope for a Independent Bloomberg/Hagel ticket in 2008. But advisers say Bloomberg is still waiting to see how the major party tickets shake out, and won't make a final decision until primary season is over. Either way, the speculation raises the tantalizing prospect of a political subway series: a three-way horse race between two New York mayors and a New York senator.  (More Election 2008 stories.)