Bloomberg's Spare Change
You've likely read by now that New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stopped in Austin for a photo op/tour around a hospital's cancer center with Lance Armstrong and former Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona.
He insisted he's "not a candidate" for president. Well, technically, he said, "I don't know why you're asking me this question, I just said, I am not a candidate, couldnt be clearer."
Then the AP learns he had lunch with the former campaign manager for Ross Perot's 1992 and 1996 third-party runs. Very interesting.
So that's the news part. The part I wanted to share was that I spent this morning's press conference in the front row, with Bloomberg about two feet away, rustling the change in his right pocket.
All I kept thinking was, a.) Michael Bloomberg has change? I thought the smallest bills he carried were thousand-dollar-bills. And b.) I wonder if he could spare me some lunch money.
I wondered this out loud to the New York Post reporter sitting next to me. He said, "Oh hell, you could ask him for $10 million, he wouldn't even miss it."
Comments
Why did no one ask him how much money he donated (or plans to donate) to Livestrong? Could you find this out? That's the Bloomberg m.o. He spent over $150 million of his own money running twice for mayor of NYC, but he donated at least $400 million to community organizations. Surely, Lance Armstrong wasn't giving Bloomberg this Texas photo op for free? How much did Bloomberg give Livestrong?
(Background: I solved the origin of "The Big Apple" and ran for Manhattan Borough President with Bloomberg in 2005. I moved to Austin about one year ago.)
Posted by: Barry Popik | January 18, 2008 6:41 PM