Mikey Bloomberg, you caucus tease! How many barrels of ink were spilled on your prospective presidential campaign these past months? How many birdcages are lined with magazine covers sporting your face? And now you're telling us you won't run?

But what a beautifully adult way to bow out of a race he never quite entered. By calling for an independent-minded, progressive approach to tackling national issues, Bloomberg threw down the gauntlet for Barack Obama to either pick up, or stub his toe on.

He did not name any candidate in his op-ed, but there's no other way to read his meaning. He writes: "The changes needed in this country are straightforward enough, but there are always partisan reasons to take an easy way out. ...These forces that prevent meaningful progress are powerful, and they exist in both parties. I believe that the candidate who recognizes that the party is over — and begins enlisting all of us to clean up the mess — will be the winner this November, and will lead our country to a great and boundless future."

Can I get a "Yes we can"? Then again, maybe I'm falling prey to the media swoon over Obama. Much has been written in recent weeks about our tendency to promote the fresh-faced new kid over the old lady with the baggage, even if they aren't far apart on any substantive issue.

Maybe it's because the Illinois senator has developed a successful logo, a theory posited by blogger Jerome Armstrong. For a detailed analysis of what each candidate's logo says about him or her, check out Karrie Jacobs' piece in Salon. Experts tell Jacobs that Obama's American sunrise logo is slick, sunny, and completely in line with the candidate's marketed image. The other successful logo (nobody else really got it) is John McCain's star and bar imagery, which projects his war hero creds in an in-your-face style that matches his own.

In other news, Obama is wrapping up his sniping war with Hillary Clinton in order to open a new front against McCain. Yesterday the pair threw rhetorical bombs at each other over Iraq and Al-Qaeda's presence there. McCain was blunt and sarcastic as he will be in the general election. Obama was sarcastic and defensive.

<nyt_author_id>The battle here will be who defines the context of this clash of logos.
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