WASHINGTON Minnesotans are pretty sure that their current governor, Tim Pawlenty, is going to run for president but he might have company in the race from another former governor.
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura told the New Yorker that he'd like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to run for president. If Bloomberg doesn't want to go, but would be willing to help finance his campaign, Ventura said he'd be willing to run. What's more, Ventura said if he ran he'd win.
From the New Yorker:
He would probably get my support, the former Minnesota governor Jesse Ventura said of Bloomberg, or Blomberg, as he pronounced it, explaining that he refuses to vote for either Democrats or Republicans, on principle. Ventura then brought up the recent losses of Linda McMahon and that lady in California, Meg Whitman, who spent roughly fifty million dollars and a hundred and sixty million dollars, respectively, as a way of suggesting that wealth is not enough. (This has surely been a concern, at times, of Perot and even of Silvio Berlusconi, two of Bloombergs weekend neighbors, who, with the Mayor, make up a kind of Bermuda Triangle of rich politicos.)
If Bloomberg could finance me for the Presidency, I would win it, Ventura said. So, if he doesnt want it, he could hire me to do it for him."