Bloomberg is where NYC voters want him
New Yorkers love their mayor, Michael Bloomberg, giving him astronomically high marks for his job in City Hall. And that's just where they want him to stay.
Bloomberg -- a former Democrat who became a Republican to run for mayor and recently left the GOP to become an Independent -- has 66 percent of New Yorkers convinced that he is doing a "good" or an "excellent" job, according to a poll released yesterday by WNBC and the Poughkeepsie-based Marist Institute of Public Opinion. A paltry 8 percent of those polled rated Bloomberg's performance as "poor."
While Bloomberg's job approval rating has been consistently high since he was reelected in 2005, the combined "good" and "excellent" ratings are the highest he has received since he took office, according to the poll.
But those numbers don't translate -- yet -- into support for a rumored presidential run by the billionaire mayor. A full 54 percent of New York voters don't want him to run for president in 2008, and 64 percent don't think he could win as an independent candidate.
Put head-to-head-to-head against two fellow New York pols -- Republican Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the US senator -- Bloomberg fares poorly, according to the poll. Clinton drew 49 percent of the vote in a hypothetical three-way contest, while Giuliani took 22 percent and Bloomberg 21 percent.
That's in spite of the fact that more New Yorkers rank Bloomberg a better mayor than Giuliani.
Bloomberg "is still in the tease phase," said Marist Institute pollster Lee Miringoff, analyzing the results. "Sometimes, you need to be more clear about your intentions" to attract support for a national run, he said.
Bloomberg set off wide speculation that he might become a presidential candidate last month, when he announced in California that he was ditching the GOP. He has insisted he intends to stay as mayor, but has not categorically ruled out a run.
Ed Failor Jr. said yesterday that he and Karen Slifka plan to notify McCain by letter of their decisions. Both are GOP operatives with deep ties in Iowa, which holds the first-in-the-nation caucuses, and in national politics. "As much as I like Senator McCain, it's not a team I'm willing to stay involved with any longer," Failor said.
The Arizona senator's support has dropped in national polls and his top Republican rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney, have outdistanced him in fund-raising. Over the past week, he has accepted the resignations of four top aides in his national campaign, laid off more than half his staff, narrowed his strategy to three states, and disclosed that he had only $2 million to spend. (AP)
The campaign of John Edwards has a ready answer for the criticism about his expensive haircuts and expansive home: A man can be wealthy and care about the poor, too. Just look at other Democratic heroes, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Robert F. Kennedy.
Edwards, a former North Carolina senator and the 2004 vice presidential nominee, plans to spend three days next week on an eight-state poverty tour reminiscent of Kennedy's 1968 trip. He even plans to end his journey where Kennedy did some 40 years ago, in Prestonsburg, Ky.
Since his first run for the White House four years ago, Edwards has been dogged by publicity about his $400 haircuts, construction of a 28,000-square-foot house, and acceptance of hundreds of thousands of dollars to speak about poverty.
Aides contend that nearly all the leading presidential candidates are wealthy. (AP)
