In an interview to be broadcast tomorrow night at 8:00pm on HDNet, Dan Rather gets a direct answer from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on if he is going to run for President in 2008. The answer is, apparently, no.

Mr. Rather: Well, let's get it out of the way. Are you running for President?
Mr. Bloomberg: No.
Mr. Rather: Are you going to run for President?
Mr. Bloomberg: No.
Mr. Rather: Any circumstances in which you would?
Mr. Bloomberg: Oh, I don't know. Any - the answer - if I don't say no categorically you'll then read something into it. The answer is no. Look, I have my own beliefs. They're not tailored to what's politically popular. It's what my parents taught me and what I've learned raising my two daughters that are the love of my life. It - I believe that certain things and if somebody asks me where I stand, I tell them. And that's not a way to get elected generally. Nobody's going to elect me president of the United States. What I'd like to do is to be able to influence the dialogue. I'm a citizen.

Now, this is Dan Rather and we are dealing with Michael Bloomberg's ego -- so even if the above quote from Rather's interview is real (we'll see tomorrow night), we'll have to see what Bloomberg does. But it does sound pretty definitive. What is surprising is the Mayor's statement later in the interview that he wouldn't accept any Cabinet position, either. As his candidacy would have hurt the Democrats more than the Republicans, I wouldn't put it past the Clintons to have offered a position in any potential Clinton administration to get him off the '08 ballot. We shall see.