On the Republican side, things are more interesting. It is not clear, at this moment, whether either Trump or Cruz would easily win over all House Republicans. Would some House Republicans rally around Bloomberg? This is what Bloomberg would have to hope for. It would also depend on the partisan composition of each state’s delegation in the new House of Representatives.

But it gets more interesting: to win the presidency, one of the top three finishers has to win the support of a majority of the House delegations. If the delegations are divided among the three candidates, then no victor might immediately emerge. Then some serious backroom politicking would begin.

Could Bloomberg win under that circumstance? It’s impossible to predict. If he could, then he would want to make sure the politicking is resolved soon. If it dragged out, the Constitution provides that the vice president, who would be elected by the Senate from the top two finishers in the electoral vote for vice president, could become interim president. The vote for vice president would be by members of the new Senate, and that majority could easily vote along party lines for either the Democratic or Republican candidate.