Enough Flirting, Mayor Says, It's Time To Say, 'No'

At the opening gala of the Tribeca Film Festival last week, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former Vice President Al Gore continued to publicly flirt with the presidential race, with Bloomberg joking, ostensibly about Gore, "Don't you just hate those rumors about running for president?"

But in an interview, one of the mayor's top aides firmly stated that, jokes aside, Bloomberg has shut the door on a White House bid. Bloomberg, mayor since 2002, has a personal fortune estimated at $5 billion by Forbes magazine, enough to allow him to self-finance a late-entry campaign.

Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff told U.S. News, firmly, while praising the mayor's independence and pragmatism, "I think he'd be terrific, but he's not going to run."

By Will Sullivan