Mayor Bloomberg inserted himself into the national debate over health care last night, saying something that none of the declared presidential candidates dare to: that the European socialized medicine model “may not be all that bad.”

When Tom Brokaw, the moderator at a forum at Cooper Union, asked the mayor for his thoughts on critics who say the Democrats, including Senator Clinton, are putting forward socialized medicine plans, Mr. Bloomberg said the model wasn’t “all that bad.” He’s noted in the past that other countries pay less for health care and have healthier populations. During the forum, Mr. Bloomberg also said America should be having “low-level” talks with Iran and that the country needs a president who will repair worldwide relations.

Mr. Bloomberg dodged questions about whether he would run for president. Instead he launched into an explanation about why the job of mayor is so great, saying that he can wake up and decide traffic on Fifth Avenue should run north instead of south. If he did, he said as the crowd laughed, there would be police officers out enforcing the new rules.