Mayor Not Candidate, but Tries Out Stump Speech
He won't comment on report he will decide on prez race in two months.
NORMAN, Okla., Jan. 7, 2008 — -- Wearing a blue suit, a red-and-blue striped tie and a ready smile, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg climbed the stage and launched a political sideshow here this morning.
With 16 political figures accompanying him, he received a standing round of applause when he was introduced by University of Oklahoma president and former Senate intelligence committee co-chair David Boren.
The forum's stated purpose was to promote bipartisanism and support what the panelists believe is in the common interests of all America — forcing the two major political parties to reach beyond the polarizing elements in their own parties to the larger electorate and its concerns.
"This is the window of opportunity to do it," said former Republican New Jersey Gov. Christie Todd Whitman. But it was interest in the presidential ambitions of Bloomberg that filled the auditorium of the university's music school.
It brought two New York Times two reporters and an editorial writer to this university town.
That same interest brought New York Daily News opinion writer Michael Goodwin and the paper's City Hall bureau chief.
And it filled 300 to 400 seats — a good chunk of the center orchestra section of the venue— with camera crews, radio reporters and political bloggers.
Bloomberg brought three New York cheesecakes — plain, vanilla and chocolate swirl — his press secretary and Kevin Sheekey, the man The New York Times recently dubbed "deputy mayor for running for president."
He also came with a now-familiar swirl of rumors that the multibillionaire mayor is prepared to spend as much as a billion dollars of his own money to run.
"No comment" is all his press secretary, Stu Loeser, would say when asked about the latest rumor. That rumor is that Bloomberg is giving it two months before he decides whether to run.
It is a question in line with the stated ambitions of the panel to push for change.
"Our political system is, at the least, badly bent and many are concluding that it is broken at a time where America must lead boldly at home and abroad," read the invitation.
"These are not ordinary times," Boren said in his opening remarks. "Today we come together … to seek to stop politics as usual. Today we say, hear our plea. Bring us together, bring us together, bring us together and the American people will assure our future."
Bloomberg was asked what the panel would do if the Democrat and Republican candidates don't meet its members' expectations.
"I think all the members of the panel are optimistic that the candidates will listen to us. … If we can be a little bit of a catalyst, then we really have accomplished something," he said.
New Yorkers do not historically fair well when they leave their home turf. But right now, at the sideshow in Oklahoma Bloomberg is a hot ticket, an outsider who has stumped the nation, and traveled as far as China and Bali to offer clear-cut positions on gun control, climate control, diet, health care and education. For more than a year, perhaps two, he has articulated the kinds of clear positions he is demanding of the candidates.
"Look I am not a candidate, number one; I am a former businessman and a mayor," Bloomberg said. "I think what has changed is that people have stopped working together, government is dysfunctional. … There is no accountability today, no one is holding themselves accountable to what they promised when they ran for office."
"They're not willing to stand up," he added. "The public may not agree with you when you take a position, but they will respect you for it."
When the forum was over Bloomberg remained a noncandidate, but political observers noted his closing remarks appeared to be testing out elements of a campaign speech.
"America is being held back and people in our country are being hurt by current government policies," he said at one point.
Other applause lines that could be part of a stump speech included: "What we want is people to be selected for government based on competency." "This country is the most wonderful country that anyone has ever created. … We seem to have lost our vision. We have become afraid and there is no reason for American to be afraid."