A PROMINENT presidential scholar is making a blunt plea to Mayor Bloomberg: Please don't run for president.In the end, I doubt Bllomberg runs, but suspect he would were Rudy Giuliani to be the GOP nominee.
Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution, who served in the Eisenhower and Nixon administrations and was an adviser to Presidents Ford and Carter, told The Post he's convinced Bloomberg's late entry into the presidential race would hurt the Democratic nominee.
"I bumped into Carey Campbell, the so-called national chairman of the [Draft Michael] Bloomberg for President campaign," Hess said.
"I'll tell you exactly what I told him: I'm totally opposed to Michael Bloomberg as an independent candidate for president, and I am a great fan of Michael Bloomberg.
"Michael Bloomberg has been a great entrepreneur, he's a great mayor and he'd be a great philanthropist, and I'd hate to see a future entry in the encyclopedia: 'Michael Bloomberg, great spoiler.' He can't win, but he could very likely defeat the Democratic nominee."
Hess' reasoning is very simple: Although some polls show Bloomberg drawing from both Republican and Democratic voters, the mayor's strength lies in blue states such as California, New York and Illinois.
"He's not going to do well in Alabama, Mississippi and Wyoming. He's not going to take away from the Republican base. What are you left with? I worry about it," said Hess.
He said he would offer Bloomberg the same advice he once offered Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan in 1980: Don't do it.
"I was very close to Daniel Patrick Moynihan," said Hess. "I truly considered him my best friend. A lot of other good friends were telling him to run for president. I went into great detail about what a bad idea it would be for all the Moynihans. I think I had an impact."
Since that now appears to be a fading proposition, look for Bloomberg to quit playing coy and endorse the Democrat nominee.
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