April 08, 2008
Bloomberg: "They're, All Three, Close Personal Friends"
WASHINGTON -- New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, while stressing that he still is not a presidential candidate, encouraged those who are to trust the voters and show some guts.
"If you want to break out of the pack and become a real leader and get elected, stand up and say what you'd do," Bloomberg said this morning during a speech on the environment at Georgetown University. "Tell the public the truth."
Bloomberg was coy when asked by a student if he favored one of the candidates' environmental plans more than the others, and if he may play a role in any administration.
"My interest in this race is to try to get the candidates to speak out clearly -- if they get elected, what they would do," he said. "I want concrete examples. So far I don't know that I've heard it from any of the three."
Bloomberg used his keynote address at the Newsweek Global Environmental Leadership Conference to announce a new plan to install solar panels on all city-run buildings in New York. He also criticized the New York State Assembly for failing to take a vote on his congestion pricing plan.
"They didn't even have the courage to vote on it," he said. "They just killed it in a backroom. That's not leadership."
Bloomberg later took questions from reporters, most of which focused on the defeat of his congestion pricing plan. But he did again touch on presidential politics, acknowledging relationships with each of the three candidates. "To say they're all three close personal friends is overstating it," he added.
"I hope you will be able to by November say that there is a candidate, that while I don't agree with him or her on everything, they are not leading me down a garden path," he said.
Bloomberg was introduced today by Newsweek's Lally Weymouth (daughter of the late Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham), who said: "We in New York are saying, what's next for our mayor? Vice President? President? Governor?"
(NBC/NJ's MIKE MEMOLI)
Posted at 01:42 PM
Comments
What a terribly misleading headline.
Myk Melez | 04.13.08 11:10 PM
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