Bloomberg: Romney Would Be Better President Than Obama

The mayor of New York City thinks Mitt Romney would be better at running the country than President Barack Obama but cannot support him because of his stances on guns and abortion rights, the New York Times reported him as telling dinner guests.

Michael Bloomberg made the comments at a charity event, the Times reported, after a guest at the dinner asked him for his feelings about the two candidates. Other guests overheard his answer. He added that he will remain neutral in the race. He did not endorse a candidate in 2008.

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Romney and Obama are both seeking Bloomberg’s backing. Romney met with the mayor at the headquarters of the mayor’s philanthropic foundation on May 1 after he played  separate rounds of golf with Vice President Joe Biden and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

According to the Times, Bloomberg has said that he would “see down the road” about an endorsement and that  the candidates are “very different, and they give the public a real choice. It’s hard to argue that you can’t tell the difference. They run the spectrum on lots of different issues.”

Bloomberg was a registered Democrat but switched parties to the Republicans when he first stood for mayor in 2001. He left the GOP in 2007 and is now an independent.