Howard Beale (Lou Dobbs) contemplating Presidential Run.

Sorry, did I say Howard Beale?….I meant to say Lou Dobbs ....It's just that I sometimes confuse fictional ranting media lunatics with real life ones.

But in any case …. It appears that America's favorite crotchety racist plans on expanding his powers to bring out the worst in the American public beyond the reach of his nightly stint as the "Minister for Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda" at CNN.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dobbs has told friends that under the right circumstances he's considering a run for the White House as a third party candidate.

After months of telling reporters that he "absolutely" would not consider leaving his highly-rated CNN show in which he crusades against free trade and illegal immigration, Mr. Dobbs posted a commentary on his Web site last week predicting a surprise new presidential candidate in 2008. The mystery candidate is an "independent populist . . . who understands the genius of this country lies in the hearts and minds of its people and not in the prerogatives and power of its elites."

Friends of Mr. Dobbs say he is seriously contemplating a race for the first time, although it's still unlikely. They spin a scenario under which the acerbic commentator would parachute into the race if Michael Bloomberg, the New York billionaire and favorite of East Coast elites, enters the field as an independent. With Hillary Clinton continuing to score badly in polls in the categories of honesty and integrity, and with the public's many doubts about Rudy Giuliani and other GOP contenders, Mr. Bloomberg may well see an opportunity to roil the political waters by entering the race late. If so, Mr. Dobbs then sees a niche for a "fourth-party" candidate who could paint the three other contenders as completely out of touch.

His playbook would be similar to that of Ross Perot in 1992, who didn't enter the presidential race until the major parties began holding their primaries but quickly shot up to 25% in many polls.

Similarly, Mr. Dobbs could leverage his name ID and popularity to secure a place on 50 state ballots and generate a mountain of free publicity.

Now as I see it, the potential field of third-party candidates is already pretty large.

We've got NYC Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, hinting around like a freshman cheerleader looking for a date to the senior prom, that he has wider ambitions …. so much so that Mayor Mike generated enough buzz to garner a recent cover story in Newsweek about his "maybe" presidential run.

Then there's the darling of the National Alliance and Stormfront's crowd, Ron Paul, who's raised eyebrows in both political and media circles by garnering so much money via the internet that he's become a "wild-card" in the race. It has long been speculated that with the size of his war-chest, Paul has no intention of slipping gentle into the night as the Republican's anoint their next heir apparent, and is planning a third party run of his own.

Lest not forget Lou's main competition, the Kook from Colorado; Terrible Tom Tancrazy, who's already given up on the idea of another run for Congress, and has nothing else to do for the next 12 months. It's been hypothesized that, with the help of the siblings Buchanan, he might take up the mantel in the battle for the "Soul of America," and launch one last Buchananite run at the White House in order to further the crusade to save white America from invading Brown hordes

But hey, what do I know. Maybe there is room for one more shrill, megalomaniac, demagogue, spitting and spouting bile, while riling up the faithful to grab their torches and pitchforks and head to the southern border.

Stranger things have happened. And there's the upside that CNN would have to pull his show for the duration of his run and we wouldn't be subjected to his daily rantings.....Run Lou, Run