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Michael Bloomberg sat down for wide-ranging interview with The Atlantic's James Bennet for this month's cover story and was not shy with his thoughts on why journalism stinks, Romney has a "genuine" problem, Twitter is ruining government, and Obama doesn't deserve any credit for killing Bin Laden.
aThe Democrat turned Republican turned Independent has a reputation for doing and saying his own thing, and not really caring about what anyone else wants him to do. His public smoking ban (eventually) won him a lot of praise; his attempts to do the same with soda have been less happily accepted. But as he nears the end of his reign at king of New York City, Bloomberg stands by his belief that making people happy means you're not doing your job. He's says that if he leaves office with high approval numbers "then I wasted my last years in office." To him, high approval rating "means you’re skiing the baby slope, for goodness’ sakes. Go to a steeper slope."
Naturally, he also has a lot of thoughts on the Presidential election, saying the key to getting elected is being seen as "genuine," which is a problem for Mitt Romney. Mayor Mike says that was the difference between George W. Bush and his opponents, Al Gore and John Kerry, and it's also holding Mitt back because "he walked away from everything he did" in Massachusetts. "I think that’s a losing strategy, to not have values," he adds.