The hardest straight answer to get out of Mayor Michael Bloomberg is not his decision to run for office, as tough as that has been, but the exact measurement of the "computer wizard's" height.
Shortly after his '01 election, Bloomberg's true height became a pressroom mystery. In pursuing the truth, Newsday's Jessica Kowal stole a look at his driver's license, listing the mayor-elect as 5-foot-10. In real-life encounters, he didn't appear to her that tall. The mayor's 5-foot-8 press aide, Jerry Russo, was taller than Bloomberg, who stood notably shorter than former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who slouched at about 5-foot-10.
Kowal went directly to the source.
The mayor-elect threw the question back at her. "How tall are you?" Bloomberg asked. "I'm 6-1," said Kowal, never one to hedge or slouch. "I'm in the ballpark," Bloomberg said before stooping into his car.
He kept himself "in the ballpark" a few days later when examining the site where he would deliver his first mayoral address. "When you're 5-10 like me," he said, "you want to make sure the podium isn't too low."
Was a crime being conducted here? Kowal checked; the state's MV-44 application for a driver's license warns that "making a false statement ... is a misdemeanor under Section 392 of the Vehicle and Traffic Law, and may result in the revocation or suspension of your license." After learning that the person in question was the city's mayor-elect, a DMV spokesman said legal avenues wouldn't be pursued without
obvious criminal intent.
Still, some considered it curious that a man who flies his own jet, walks away from the crash landing of a helicopter he was piloting and bankrolls a winning $70-million campaign would fudge his height.
The mayoral podium had, of course, been raised for other New York City mayors. A few terms earlier, Mayor Abe Beame stood atop a wooden box and peered out over the inaugural audience from a height of 5-2. From this same elevation, although in the Depression era when men were shorter, Fiorello La Guardia reigned over the city during his three-term mayoralty as "The Little Flower."
But this was the mayor's office. Can a height-challenged fellow make it to the White House? And was that Bloomberg's ambition all along?
Mayor Bloomberg's decision to bolt the Republican Party as an independent has knocked the New York presidential candidates into a cocked hat. "Although my plans for the future have not changed," Bloomberg's straight-faced press release said, "this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our city."
With 21/2 years remaining on his term and no possibility of re-election as mayor because of term limits, Bloomberg wants us to accept his party switch as a mere detail of bookkeeping. Announced presidential candidates from New York see a likely chance that Bloomberg will join them in the '08 race, despite the mayor's strong, though slightly wavering, denial.
It is an open secret these days, thanks to Kowal's early work, that Mayor Bloomberg's height is not in the ballpark of 6 feet, but is in fact 5-foot-7. He once denied presidential ambitions when questioned about them. "A short, Jewish billionaire from New York? Come on."
Will Bloomberg's height -- quite apart from his position on Iraq, his taxing policy, or even his tinny whine -- keep him off the White House carnival ride?
The tallest president on record is Abraham Lincoln, who matched his stature in achievement with a reputation as the republic's greatest president by many accounts. The shortest was James Madison, at 5-foot-4 (some accounts say 5-foot-6). The fourth president -- whose wife, Dolly, remains one of the best-known first ladies -- achieved notoriety as a heavy contributor to the Federalist papers and the drafting of the Constitution. He oversaw a nation with only 19 states and a population smaller than that of New York City, with 7.2million.
In the wake of 9/11, Mayor Bloomberg's fudging of his height faded, and his contrasting style with his snarling predecessor made him wildly popular by comparison. Should Bloomberg decide to run for president, once again he would get an opportunity to grade Giuliani's test papers.
Stay tuned.