Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg and Lance Armstrong by Harry Cabluck/AP
The day after giving his State of the City address, Mayor Bloomberg headed out of town and to capital of the Lone Star State. Sure, Bloomberg did have a press conference with Lance Armstrong and former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, but more interesting was his meeting with Ross Perot's former campaign manager!
The billionaire mayor had a "private" meeting with Clay Mulford, who is a "ballot access expert." A ballot access expert would be necessary in Texas, where an independent candidate (whose name sounds like Schmichael Schmoomberg) would only have between March 5 and May 12 to gather 74,100 signatures of Texans who have not voted in a primary in order to get onto the ballot. (Luckily for him, Bloomberg has resources.)
Bloomberg was his usual self when asked about Texas's early ballot deadline:
"I just said, I'm not a candidate — it couldn't be clearer. Which of the words do you not understand? People have urged me to do it but I'm not a candidate, so that's where it is. Let's take some questions that can add to the discourse."
Bloomberg, this is why the Wall Street Journal is calling you Mayor McTease! And note, back in 2006, New York magazine writer John Heilemann said that Bloomberg, if he ran for president, would essentially be a sane Perot.
Bloomberg's press conference with Armstrong and Carmona was to push cancer back into the national debate. Armstrong, cancer survivor (and two-time NYC marathon participant), said, "In my opinion, whoever wants to be president of the United States of America ought to address the number one killer in this country." Not that Bloomberg is thinking about running for president, as Bloomberg said, "I have said repeatedly, while a lot of people have urged me to run for president, ... I am not a candidate. But I am going to use the bully pulpit of my current position to speak out."
Later today, Bloomberg will be Los Angeles, joining California Governor Arnold Schwazenegger and Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell to make some sort of infrastructure announcement (they're speaking at a Park & Ride lot).
