Billionaire Mark Cuban said he'd like to see former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg run for president, though the Mavericks' owner wondered if Bloomberg might be "too meek" to win a presidential election.
"I have no idea, but I'd like to see him run," Cuban told WABC radio's Election Central with Rita Cosby on Tuesday. "I think he'd bring a different perspective. We know his policies, from his time as mayor of New York. We know where he stands on guns. We know where he stands on other issues. He's very, very progressive in a lot of respects on social issues, and he's somewhat conservative on fiscal issues. We know he understands business."
Cuban continued, "The question is going to be, is he too meek? And when I say meek, I mean just force of voice. You know, can he shout loud enough? Certainly in the business world he's far from meek, and he can handle himself in any circumstances, and he's proven that when he was mayor. But in this election, the way things are running right now, being loud unfortunately means something and it takes a force of voice to stand out, particularly on the Republican side."
Bloomberg is reportedly considering a run, and sees an opportunity for an independent candidacy if Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were to become the nominees for their respective parties.
In race with Trump and Clinton, said Cuban, Bloomberg's lack of charisma might be a negative.
"So, if you get into a race where he's the independent candidate, most likely the Republican candidate — and let's just say it's Hillary on the Democratic side, it's going to be loud. It's going to be boisterous. And I don't know how he'd fit, and even more importantly, I don't know how he'll be perceived," he said "And if he's not loud and he's kind of reserved in how he speaks, you know, will that be perceived as negative? Will that be perceived, that he doesn't, he doesn't have what it takes to be president? And you hate to think, that those are decision points for people, but they may be."
Cuban added that he isn't ready to pick a candidate, but he again encouraged Bloomberg to run to see if he would change the tone of the debate.
"Yeah, I mean look at I'm not ready to, we've got enough time, that I'm not ready to pick a candidate yet, or endorse anybody," Cuban said. "But I certainly would encourage him to run so that we can see, you know, where he is on the issues and others can see where he is on the issues, and more importantly, to see if it changes the tone of the debate. You know, with Michael coming in, if he comes in, like I said, there might be issues that he's not, he's not loud and that might impact people's perceptions. But if he can change the tone of discussion. If he can make it so that we're actually debating issues and looking for details on where they stand on issues, and getting into minutia in some cases, I think if he can drive that, then that would be a huge benefit."