I haven't wasted my breath on Unity08 because I couldn't figure out who it would appeal to.

Sure we all want "unity" in the abstract, but U.S. politics are about real people (candidates), not abstractions. So the key question was: who would they run?

If there is a broadly unifying person in American politics, I haven't met him or her. Just because a candidate talks about unity doesn't make him or her a unifier. After all, George Bush insisted he was a "uniter, not a divider." Did anyone outside David Broder's alternative universe actually believe him?

So without an obvious "unity" candidate, Unity08 really looked like a stalking horse for Mike Bloomberg. Mike who? I'm a New Yorker so I know who he is, but who outside New York does?

Bloomberg is best known for being a short billionaire. Which makes him Ross Perot without the floppy ears and Texas twang. But Perot has one thing Bloomberg lacks - a personality as big as his wallet. By contrast, Bloomberg makes the Microsoft guy in the TV ads look exciting.

So today we learn that Unity08 really was a stalking horse for Bloomberg.

the bipartisan Unity08 effort is poised to shut down its Web site, reconstitute as a Draft Bloomberg site and launch its own 50-state signature-gathering operation on behalf of the supposedly reluctant would-be independent presidential candidate.

Surprise, surprise!

Apparently 124,000 suckers fell for the Unity08 bait-and-switch. Will they get fooled again?

But the biggest sucker is Bloomberg himself, if he thinks he has a prayer of getting half of the votes Ross Perot got in his two losing campaigns.

Actually I'm grateful to Perot because Bill Clinton would never have defeated incumbent George H.W. Bush in 1992 without Perot, and Perot made it easier for Clinton to beat Dole in 1996.

Bloomberg could play the same spoiler role in 2008, especially if Republicans choose Mike Huckabee. The Wall Street wing of the GOP will never support Tax Hike Mike, so wasting their votes on Bloomberg would guarantee a Democratic victory.

Go Bloomberg Go!