Mayor Busy Playing Good Host
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Mayor Bloomberg crisscrossed Manhattan yesterday, playing host to a roster of events meant to kick off the four day Republican National Convention, which officially begins today.
Mr. Bloomberg spoke Spanish at the Congressional Hispanic Conference luncheon at Gracie Mansion. He embraced Log Cabin Republicans at the Bryant Park Grill. He welcomed California delegates to a special matinee showing of “Aida” on Broadway. He then met with leaders of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at Chelsea Piers.
All day, his speeches were a slightly altered version of what he has been saying for months: the Republican National Convention is not about politics, it is about drumming up economic activity for the city.
“New York City is proud to host our first-ever national convention,” Mr. Bloomberg told Republicans at the Bryant Park Grill. “This is our chance to show America just how far we’ve come since 9/11, and I think the newspaper coverage, the TV coverage, the radio coverage will go a long way toward helping this city. This really is a boon to an awful lot of people.”
He says this so often and with such vigor it is easy to miss what he doesn’t say: that the convention’s delegates are here to make President Bush their Republican nominee.
Mr. Bloomberg waited until his last public event of the day to mention Mr. Bush. “I’m going to vote for him,” the mayor told the group, adding that he hoped they would vote for him, too. The mayor has been so focused on hotel rooms, restaurant vouchers, jobs, and security that Mr. Bush has become almost an afterthought.
“This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone,” said a Baruch College public policy professor, Doug Mussio. “He doesn’t want to be associated with the president or the party because in a year he is going to be running, and he needs Democrats. He is making a conscious effort not to look like a Republican this week and he hasn’t governed as a Republican, so he needs to keep that up.”
That’s why aides say Mr. Bloomberg’s presence will be conspicuously absent at the end of the week, when Messrs. Bush and Cheney stand on stage as the party’s nominees and the balloons begin to drop. The nominees will be joined on stage by family members and a host of Republican luminaries like Senator McCain, Governor Pataki, and Mayor Giuliani. Mr. Bloomberg, aides said, will be in Madison Square Garden, but he’ll be focused on being a good host. He won’t be onstage.