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No Talk of 2012 During Obama, Bloomberg Golf Outing

By DNAinfo Staff on August 31, 2010 4:30pm  | Updated on August 31, 2010 6:39pm

In this 2008 photo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks with then Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama.
In this 2008 photo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg speaks with then Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama.
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AP Photo/Shannon Stapleton, Pool

By Jill Colvin

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

MIDTOWN — President Barack Obama chatted with Mayor Michael Bloomberg about family, the economy and their respective golf handicaps when they hit the links last Friday, but one thing definitely did not come up: the 2012 election.

"We did not talk about 2012 or anybody that would run and certainly not about me," he said Tuesday. "I have 1,218 days left to go in this job and I plan to serve them all out."

It was the first time they had played golf together. Before teeing off, the two took the opportunity to discuss business, Bloomberg said.

"We did talk about the economy. We talked a little politics," he said. "We also talked about our families. He has two daughters, I have two daughters. We joked about raising kids. But mainly we talked about our golf game once we were out on the golf course."

But Bloomberg refused to reveal any more specifics about the conversation.

"When I have a conversation with the president or anybody else in private, it stays private, as it should," he said.

A new Zogby International poll commissioned by The O'Leary Report newsletter found that, if the race were held today with Obama as the Democratic candidate, former Mass. Governor Mitt Romney as the Republican, and Bloomberg as an Independent, Bloomberg would be trounced.

He received just six percent of votes, versus 42 percent for Romney and 41 percent for Obama among 2,062 likely voters, Zogby communications director Sam Rodgers said.

Even among independent voters, he polled at just 11 percent.

As for the meeting, one thing that was clear was that the mayor and the president were not a winning pair on the links.

The two tied the game they played together in Martha's Vineyard Friday at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, Mass., losing a bet they'd placed with their opponents, Washington power broker Vernon Jordan and Marvin Nicholson, the White House trip director.

"Unfortunately the president and I, who were paired against those other two guys, whoever they were, we lost a little bit of money," he said. "It was not a substantive amount of money — it was a tiny amount of money — but the spirit of it was we had a friendly bet and the President and I as a team lost."

The two have promised a re-match, he said.

This is not the first time that Bloomberg has tried to squash rumors that he plans to run in 2012.