Being mayor of New York is awesome, Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday during a speech at MIT.
“I have my own army in the NYPD, which is the seventh biggest army in the world,” Bloomberg said, according to the New York Observer. “I have my own State Department, much to Foggy Bottom’s annoyance. We have the United Nations in New York, and so we have an entree into the diplomatic world that Washington does not have.”
What a town! Bloomberg’s right, though. In September, NYPD Comissioner Ray Kelly told CBS News that his police force could take down an airplane “in a very extreme situation.” We don’t know by what means, of course.
Bloomberg went on to say that cities and mayors — unlike politicians in the beltway — can actually get things done.
“The difference between my level of government and other levels of government is that action takes place at the city level,” Bloomberg said. “The cities and mayors are where you deal with crime, you deal with real immigration problems, you deal with health problems, you deal with picking up the garbage.”
The Observer reports that Bloomberg’s speech at times seemed to flirt with the idea of a White House bid, an ambition the three-term mayor has long denied.
Read more here.
David Taintor
David Taintor is TPM’s News Editor. He contributes to TPM’s Livewire coverage, among other areas. David is from Chanhassen, Minnesota, where, yes, it gets very cold. Reach him at taintor [at] talkingpointsmemo.com
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