He's smart, has critical business experience, and could be a valuable negotiator when it comes to avoiding the fiscal cliff.

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

The post-election game of who will be in the cabinet has begun. Here's a suggestion: The Obama Administration should seriously consider Mike Bloomberg for Treasury secretary, and not just automatically place current White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew in that position.

The pros are self-evident. Bloomberg is a highly successful businessman -- and one of the fair criticisms of the Obama first-term team was that it had almost no one at a high level from the business community. He has obviously had extensive government experience, and so would not be prone to the usual mistakes of business leaders in government, who tend to be uncomfortable with the diffused power and conflicting purposes that characterize Washington. Both in his business career and as mayor, he emphasized the financial discipline that is so important for the country now. He knows leading players on Wall Street and in industrial America. And top business leadership is going to be key in forging a compromise on the "fiscal cliff." He is a smart, independent person of stature who could give credibility and heft to a second-term Obama administration.