Bloomberg says no plan to run for president

[Ron Burgundy]

Reuters - New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Tuesday he was unlikely ever to run for U.S. president, dampening speculation he might join next year's White House race.

"I do not anticipate being a candidate this time or any other time," he said on a visit to the Mexican capital.

There has been speculation among some political observers that the Republican mayor might run for president, possibly even funding his own independent campaign as another billionaire, H. Ross Perot, did in the 1990s.

Bloomberg, ranked by Forbes magazine as the 40th richest American with an estimated $5 billion, said he was happy as mayor of New York.

"I plan to spend the next 984 days being mayor of what I think is the greatest city in the world. I have the best job in the world," Bloomberg told reporters earlier in the city of Toluca.

Since taking office in early 2002, Bloomberg -- a longtime Democrat who switched parties in 2001 to run in the less-crowded Republican field -- has honed his political street smarts and built a niche as a social liberal and fiscal conservative.

Following a landslide re-election win in November 2005, the 64-year-old Bloomberg has been increasingly speaking out on national issues, including launching television ads this week as part of a gun control campaign, and has become one of America's most prominent mayors.

Bloomberg, who cannot run for mayor again because of term limits, has insisted he will sell his news and financial-information services company Bloomberg LP at the end of his term to focus on philanthropy.

He was in Mexico to study a Mexican government anti-poverty program which he plans to copy in New York.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070424/pl_nm/usa_bloomberg_dc [link]