I'm a bit suspicious that the New York Times was pushing this guy yesterday, and now the Daily News is pushing him today. They say he is conservative. I wonder.
The buzz is the guy is lobbying for the job---which may work against him.
He is socially conservative, but on economics (he has written, and talks about it, he also supported the anti-globalization protests in Italy during the G-8 conferance) he is liberal, if not outright socialist, and is not a believer in the free markets.
In some essence, you could argue that he is a throwback populist, on religion, culture, and doctrine, he is as conservative as one can get, on economics and politics, he is in the left wing brigade.