Mayor Bloomberg: 'Greatest job in the world'

by Mark Silva

Michael Bloomberg, billionaire mayor of New York, tells of the day he called the city’s central telephone line – 311 – to report seeing trash in a lot.

“I was driving to some event and called 311 and I reported it,'' the mayor recalled today. (The woman on the phone said,) ‘We’d like to have your name…’ I said, ‘Fine, the name’s Michael Bloomberg.’ And she said, ‘How do you spell that?’’’

“I told my mother: ‘See… No matter how big your head gets.’’

So, if Bloomberg hasn’t become a household name even in his own city, can he have any hope of mounting a presidential campaign – now that the formerly Republican mayor has become a political independent? “I don’t plan to implement 311 on a national level,’’ Bloomberg said today in response to a teasing press question at his celebration of the city’s 50 millionth call to the 311 help line.

“I have said that my intention is to be mayor for the next 925 days,’’ Bloomberg said. “I’ve got the greatest job in the world, and I’m going to keep doing it… I’m comfortable that this country will have options… As we narrow it down, people will pick and choose, and the choices will look good… and hopefully, people will be smart enough to choose somebody who is able to lead this country forward.’’

At the same time, this will not bar him from speaking out on national issues – including the war in Iraq: “By not being affiliated with a party, I think I will have a better opportunity to do that.''

Asked about polling showing he might not run so well nationally, Bloomberg said: "I think they're wasting their time -- I'm not a candidate.''

Is there any circumtance in which he might run? "If everybody in the world was dead, and I was the last one alive -- yeah sure.''

Actually, Bloomberg's name is pretty well known nationwide. Almost two-thirds of American voters (65 percent know who he is, the Pew Research Center has found. That's more than have heard of Mitt Romney (62 percent), Joe Biden (58 percent), Fred Thompson (51 percent) or Bill Richardson (48 percent).

"But as the New York mayor reportedly considers an independent bid for the presidency, only 9 percent of voters who have heard of him say there’s a good chance they’d cast a ballot for him,'' reports Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Center. "Another 23 percent say there is some chance, but more than half of American voters – 56 percent – say there’s no chance.''

But is he actually thinking of running for president, the mayor was asked repeatedly?

“We’re trying to do things on topic,'' he said, "and that’s how we’re focusing.’’

Could he implement a national 311 better than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) could, a reporter pressed?

“Sen. Clinton has been a very good senator, and she deals at a very different level, other than trying to fix potholes,’’ Bloomberg replied.

Bloomberg, who founded the Bloomberg News Service, could invest millions of his own dollars in a campaign, should he decide to pursue one.

But today, he was talking about millions of phone calls.

“Fast food restaurants celebrate billions of hamburgers being served, but today we have reached an important milestone of our own… as 311 logged in its 50-millionth call. ’’ Bloomberg said at the city’s call center – where queries in 179 languages range from everything to school snow days to alternative side street parking to the location of day care.

“It was just another ordinary call in a day in New York City,’’ the proud mayor said of his program. “It’s based on the simple concept of public service… Our customers are 8.3 million New Yorkers.’’