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Bloomberg, I am not a candidate’ in ’08

January 15, 2008

HARLEM. In Wonderland, the Cheshire Cat disappeared and reappeared whenever it liked. At times, its grin was all that remained.In presidential politics, Mayor Michael Bloomberg is one cool cat. This month it’s been widely reported he’s paid for polling in all 50 states to assess the prospects of an independent run at the White House, yet he’s always denied his interest.

Fresh from last week’s “bipartisan” conference in Oklahoma, Bloomberg finally faced reporters here yesterday morning. The answers were predictable.

What about reports of polling? Bloomberg smiled broadly, and disappeared.

“I’m shocked,” he said. “Where did you hear that? Look, I’ve said this before … I am not a candidate for the presidency.”

He was unapologetic for criticizing the current crop of presidential candidates.

“I am trying to speak out,” Bloomberg explained. “I feel very strongly the world that’s going to be left for my children, or for me when I get older, is being dictated by people who are running for office today.”

He was asked about his deposition in a defamation case brought against him by a South Carolina gun dealer. Bloomberg’s lawyers objected to this query from the plaintiff’s attorney: “Are you going to run for president?”

Bloomberg deflected and switched the topic.

While he’s rebuked critics of the Iraq war, he’s offered little analysis of the nation’s top foreign policy challenge. A reporter brought up a study by Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, which estimated 655,000 deaths in Iraq since the 2003 invasion were directly related to the war. Bloomberg wouldn’t budge.

“I don’t know how to break this to you,” he said, “but academia doesn’t ask former chairmans of the board or people who they’ve named schools after to vet studies.”

That didn’t stop one last shot: You must be interested in running, someone said — after all, you’re paying for national research.

“I didn’t say I was collecting the polling research,” Bloomberg said. “No matter how many times you ask the question, I’m not a candidate, and let’s get on with it.”

Source: METRO NY

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Written by NY Politics · Filed Under Bloomberg Watch 

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