But even without the personal fortune that helped Bloomberg win as a Republican (or the one that John Catsimatidis may use to help him), Lhota stands out as a compelling and competitive candidate.
To prevent such a catastrophe, incumbent politicians such as McCain and Lieberman, who want us to trust them, have been busily enacting campaign-finance rules that bar anyone without a personal fortune from displacing them.
The leading executive of a public-private housing finance institution who brags to me that she got out just in time without being stained by the crisis, her extraordinary small fortune intact.
According to an old joke among Mittelstanders, Bill Gates could not have made his fortune in Germany because it is illegal to turn a garage without a window into an office.