One of the encouraging things about the recent New York Post poll showing public receptiveness to a presidential campaign by Mayor Bloomberg is that if Mr. Bloomberg ever made it to the White House, he’d presumably try to bring at least some of his team along. The news that New York was, yet again, the safest large city in the nation was met this week without much attention, but it demonstrates yet again that Police Commissioner Kelly has done a remarkable job. Imagine Mr. Kelly as FBI director, or as secretary of homeland security. The schools chancellor, Joel Klein, just got some positive feedback from the latest round of test scores. He seems to be following Mr. Bloomberg’s philosophy of getting the best advisers — he’s been taking advice from three minds that have already served at the federal level, a chief of staff to President Clinton, John Podesta; a secretary of education in the Bush administration, Rod Paige, and an assistant secretary of education in the Reagan administration, Chester E. Finn, Jr.

One can already see the outlines of an electoral vote strategy for Mr. Bloomberg’s 2008 presidential race in the mayor’s recent activities. He’s having a fundraiser for Senator Lieberman, showing he can stand up for someone when others, such as Senator Clinton, flee. He appeared yesterday on the Coast, with Governor Schwarzenegger. He co-wrote an op-ed with Governor Bush of Florida. Imagine that in 2008 Mr. Bloomberg, running as an independent, carried his home state of New York, neighboring Connecticut and New Jersey, his native Massachusetts, Florida, and California. That would give him 147 electoral votes of the 270 needed to win. If the Republicans nominate Governor Romney, Mr. Romney might carry Massachusetts, but in that case Mr. Bloomberg might pick up Senator McCain’s home state of Arizona.

After that, the math starts to get tougher for Mr. Bloomberg. He could pick up Maryland, where he maintains a big presence through his involvement with Johns Hopkins University and where his tough stance on gun violence could pick up votes in crime-ridden Baltimore and Prince George’s counties. He could pick up some electoral votes in Maine, which can split its electoral votes and which has a history of such Republicans as Senators Collins and Snowe and independents such as Governor King. Minnesota, another state that elected an independent governor, Jesse Ventura, is possible pickup, as is Washington state, home of Microsoft, where the culture of computer technology and entrepreneurship might cotton to the founder of Bloomberg, L.P. Pennsylvania, which elected Senator Specter, could be winnable, too.

That gets Mr. Bloomberg to 203 electoral votes, at which point the math starts to get even harder. Rhode Island’s four electoral votes — another state that likes liberal Republicans, like Senator Chafee — would bring the total to 207. At this point, a lot of the other states with big electoral vote numbers have candidates with home state advantages. Senator Clinton is an Illinois native and lived in the Arkansas governor’s mansion. The Romney name goes far back in Michigan politics, and Mr. Romney, a Mormon who helped save the winter Olympics, would win Utah. To win an electoral vote majority in a general election, Mr. Bloomberg will have to break the “solid South” and the intermountain West that has delivered the White House to Republicans so often in recent elections.

Colorado, with nine electoral votes, is a possibility; its longtime governor, Richard Lamm, unsuccessfully challenged Mr. Bloomberg’s Bermuda neighbor Ross Perot for the Reform Party presidential nomination in 1996. Mr. Bloomberg reportedly has a condo in Vail. Beyond that, Mr. Bloomberg’s hopes would have to rest on the idea that the New South of high technology and higher education and immigrants from the North and West is strong enough in places like suburban Atlanta, Northern Virginia, the North Carolina research triangle, and Nashville, Tennessee (that’s assuming Tennesseans Bill Frist or Al Gore, Georgian Newt Gingrich, or Virginian George Allen aren’t their party’s nominees). Remember, Mr. Bloomberg doesn’t need a majority in any of these states — he just needs a plurality, that is, more votes than either the Republican or the Democrat.

So while it’s interesting to see Mr. Bloomberg in California and doing things with Senator Lieberman and with Governor Jeb Bush, the moment to know that the presidency is seriously in play for Mr. Bloomberg is when he starts making speaking appearances in Atlanta. Actually, come to think of it, Mr. Bloomberg was in Atlanta just the other day, speaking to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. So Mr. Bloomberg and his team may be further down this road than is widely thought. Whatever one thinks of the mayor — these columns have carried some of the most sulfurous criticism offered in this town — that can be only a good thing for the political debate in this country.