Parsons = Bloomberg 2.0?

Joe Nocera writes in the Times* that Time Warner chief Dick Parsons probably isn't going to run for mayor in 2009. Nocera had dinner with the guy, and I didn't, so maybe he's right. But a friend who's known Parsons for years spoke with him recently and came away with the sense that he is going to run -- or at least would like people to have that impression.

Sound like anyone else you know? In fact, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced Parsons could be the second coming of Mike Bloomberg, if he wanted to. (And, no, I'm not exactly the first to say so.) Consider all the similarities: Both men, obviously, have run large media companies. Both are Republicans who could easily be Democrats. Both started their current jobs in the aftermath of disasters (9/11 for Bloomberg; the AOL-Time Warner merger for Parsons) and soothed jittery constituencies with a calm, wry personal manner.

To be sure, Bloomberg has a visionary streak and doesn't mind a fight while Parsons sees himself as a manager and consensus builder. But even Bloomberg's most ambitious undertakings have something ad-hoc and nonideological about them. Congestion pricing is a conservative means to a liberal end, harnessing the power of the free market for the civic good, while the 311 line is quintessentially managerial: Basically, he gave the city a help desk.

Maybe Parsons really doesn't intend to run. But maybe when New Yorkers realize just how much a hypothetical Parsons Administration might resemble a third term of the widely-approved Bloomberg reign, a "Draft Dick" movement will crop up and convince him to reconsider.

*The story is only available online to Times Select subscribers. Given the reports that the Times is planning to do away with the silly, self-defeating premium service soon, I'm going to do my bit to hasten that blessed day's arrival by not linking to stories behind the wall.