Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at a shareholders meeting in Seattle, Wash., in 2014. (David Ryder/Reuters)

Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg decided he didn’t want to spend part of his fortune running for the Democratic nomination. Last night, former Starbucks CEO and potential independent presidential candidate Howard Schultz issued a statement, painting Bloomberg’s decision as a supporting argument for his bid:

Mike Bloomberg is inarguably one of the most effective leaders of government our country has seen this generation – because he governed from the center with big ideas, pragmatism and common sense. In an era of paralysis and dysfunction, he has been an exception. I’ve long said that there isn’t room for centrist moderation in either party and it appears Mr. Bloomberg has come to that same conclusion.

“Centrist moderate” with “pragmatism and common sense” is an interesting way to describe the most deep-pocketed, relentless gun-control advocate, large-soda-banning face of the nanny state, and the man who declared, “I am telling you if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.”

He bought elections, turned away food from the needy because he deems it insufficiently nutritious, and referred to the New York Police Department as his “own army.”

By the way, regarding healthy eating, Bloomberg’s an epic hypocrite: “He dumps salt on almost everything, even saltine crackers. He devours burnt bacon and peanut butter sandwiches. He has a weakness for hot dogs, cheeseburgers, and fried chicken, washing them down with a glass of merlot.”


But Bloomberg’s Napoleonic and insufferable qualities are why comparisons of the two billionaires are a little off the mark.

Schultz is generally liberal, but he’s soft-spoken about it. The themes in his new book and early speeches are really soft-focus and not all that ideological: helping veterans and military families, reaching out to forgotten parts of the country like Appalachia, ensuring every young person in every at-risk environment has the opportunity to get a first job and can learn to look in the mirror with pride. Bloomberg’s approach to critics was as combative as his recommended approach to young African-American men in high-crime neighborhoods, “throw them up against the wall and frisk them.” By comparison, Schultz is a Care Bear or Barney the Dinosaur.

Schultz’s independent bid is still the longest of long-shots. But he’s got nearly unlimited personal funds and he doesn’t exhibit megalomania, which probably makes him a stronger candidate than Bloomberg.