Bloomberg's Degrees of Denial

There are denials and there are denials.

Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg flatly denied having any interest in running for governor, telling reporters at press conference in the Rockaways that New York Post article about it was “a totally made-up story."

The interesting thing about the comment, if one were inclined to obsess about this stuff -- and let's assume for the sake of this exercise that one is -- is that it was a angrier denial than the various responses Bloomberg has had to the question of whether he's running for president.

Asked a day earlier about his plans for 2008, he said, “I’m not running for president and I’m not planning to.” He then essentially gave a shout-out, of sorts, to Michael Saul of the Daily News for keeping the storyline alive.

“I’ve said it a thousand times," he said. "What else do you need? It never seems to satisfy Mr. Saul. If anybody has been promot[ing] the candidacy it was his words. People are using that on blogs all over the country. Whether it’s permitted Mr. Zuckerman to go along with what his staff feels about my potential for a national level I really don’t know. You’ll have to, perhaps he’ll be willing to be interviewed for that. I’d call him. I can give you his phone number.”

You can listen and compare, if you're so inclined, here and here.