Washington – Mayor Michael Bloomberg says he doesn’t have an eye on the White House but it sure seems to have one on him. The mayor’s summer datebook has included golf with the president, breakfast with the vice president, a chat with the Treasury secretary.
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Mr. Bloomberg, who contemplated running for president in 2008 and has repeatedly ruled out an Oval Office bid in 2012, has received a flurry of invitations for face time in recent weeks with some of the highest-ranking officials in the Obama administration.
During a Friday visit to President Barack Obama’s vacation spot on Martha’s Vineyard, the mayor confirmed he discussed politics with the commander in chief but he insisted there was no discussion of the 2012 presidential race or his personal post-City Hall plans.
“We did not talk about 2012 or anybody that would run and certainly not about me,” Mr. Bloomberg said Tuesday in response to an inquiry from The Wall Street Journal. “I have 1,218 days left to go in this job and I plan to serve them all out.”
Mr. Bloomberg’s powwow with the president, coming just weeks after Vice President Joe Biden took time out of his summer vacation for a 90-minute chat with the mayor at Gracie Mansion, has fueled speculation about the White House’s motives. The White House insists the meetings are routine and about policy, but political observers say it’s possible the White House is courting Mr. Bloomberg’s support or his money, perhaps both.
The meetings are part of the administration’s outreach, said Moira Mack, a White House spokeswoman.
“The president seeks out voices from outside the Beltway, holding discussions with the nation’s mayors and governors and hearing from the American people directly at events and in their letters,” Ms. Mack said.
“When the president asks you to play golf, you play golf,” said Howard Wolfson, the mayor’s deputy mayor for government affairs and communications.
The 68-year-old mayor, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-unaffiliated candidate, endorsed President George W. Bush’s re-election campaign in 2004, but he stayed out of the 2008 race between Mr. Obama and Sen. John McCain, despite the fact that Mr. McCain campaigned for Mr. Bloomberg during his uphill battle for mayor in 2001.
Some observers suggested the meetings with White House officials are geared, in part, toward neutralizing the mayor.
While policy issues—most notably the economy—are driving the White House’s interest in Mr. Bloomberg, if “in the end there is a political benefit, so much the better,” said Richard Fife, a Democratic political consultant and a senior adviser to Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign in New York. “The political, or the 2012 [election], is the potential add on. It’s not the driver of what’s going on.”
Indeed, it’s not unusual for the president and cabinet officials to talk with the mayor of the most populous city in the country, said Bill Cunningham, Mr. Bloomberg’s former communications director. And Mr. Bloomberg has been outspoken on a number of national issues, including the economy, education and immigration.
Still, Mr. Cunningham noted, “the more you work with somebody—and this goes in both directions—the harder it is to be critical.”
The mayor’s recent meetings with Mr. Obama, Mr. Biden and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner have, generally speaking, been on the same topic: strengthening the economy and creating jobs for Americans. Mr. Bloomberg also regularly speaks with Lawrence Summers, director of the White House National Economic Council.
Talking to the mayor about the economy “makes sense given that Mike Bloomberg built an 11,000-person company from scratch and New York City did not fall as deeply into recession as the rest of the country and is climbing out faster, too,” said Stu Loeser, Mr. Bloomberg’s press secretary.
Mr. Bloomberg spent about five hours with the president on Friday. The mayor and president were paired as golf partners against Washington insider Vernon Jordan and trip director Marvin Nicholson. Messrs. Obama and Bloomberg were on the losing side of the game.
Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch echoed the sentiment that Mr. Obama would be wise to heed the mayor’s advice on the economy. But Mr. Koch said, no matter how much the White House woos Mr. Bloomberg, the mayor is going to do as he pleases. “You can’t neutralize Mike Bloomberg. You can’t neutralize anybody who has $20 billion,” Mr. Koch said. “He does what an 800-pound gorilla always does—he sits wherever he wants to sit.”
SAnother mis-step in naming Bloomsberg to his cabinet. This man is a natural philanderer and will do and say anything to ingriate himself to the administration. We need common sense, not more liberal ideas. Let the messiah bring in Art Laffer, Prof Moriici, and build an economics team from them.