Elections

Bloomberg gets chatty at swanky charity function

Stephen Elliott Contributor
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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg has declined to publicly endorse either Mitt Romney or Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election, but he was a little looser with his words at a charity function in New York last week, The New York Times reports.

According to two unnamed witnesses, Bloomberg said that Romney would be better at running the country than Obama, but that he was not able to support Romney because of disagreement over social issues, specifically mentioning abortion rights and gun control.

Bloomberg intends to remain neutral in the race, according to one of the guests.

The New York Times reports that both candidates are “aggressively” courting the endorsement of the billionaire mayor, who declined to endorse a candidate in 2008 and who has been in the news lately for his proposed ban on large sodas and simultaneous support for decreasing arrests for marijuana possession.

Romney met with Bloomberg in early May to discuss policy. A week earlier, Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta invited Bloomberg to play golf.

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