Everything So Unexpected — The Way You Right And Left It*

Bloomberg acknowledges that he has nothing to gain by endorsing candidates this election cycle. But then he had to go and do this:

Mayor Bloomberg has made his feelings known about a top musical race, but he is staying out of the state races for governor and Senate, saying that his neutrality is what’s best for the city.

“I think because I’m the mayor, and I will have to work with whoever is elected,” Mr. Bloomberg told reporters yesterday, “it would be in the city’s interest if I just stay neutral.”

The mayor did make one major endorsement yesterday, throwing his considerable musical muscle behind Shakira in her bid for Video of the Year at tomorrow’s MTV Video Music Awards, which are being held at Radio City Music Hall. The Colombian pop star is up for the award for her hit single, “Hips Don’t Lie.” The other nominees are Madonna, Panic! At the Disco, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Christina Aguilera.

“I think I’m going to have to go with Shakira — those hips don’t lie,” Mr. Bloomberg said in a taped segment that aired yesterday on MTV’s popular video countdown show, “Total Request Live.”

. . .

Mr. Bloomberg is a registered Republican, but he has distanced himself from the party during his mayoralty, and Mr. Faso and the GOP candidates for Senate, John Spencer and Kathleen Troia “K.T.” McFarland, are well behind Mr. Spitzer and Mrs. Clinton in the polls. The mayor is seen as being close to Mr. Spitzer, the gubernatorial frontrunner.

Mr. Bloomberg’s flirtation with a presidential run also may have factored into his calculation, an Albany political analyst, Alan Chartock, said. “Clearly, he has a good relationship with Eliot Spitzer, but if he endorses him, he potentially damages his bona fides with Republicans, which he may need in case he runs for president on the Republican ticket,” Mr. Chartock said

*At least I refrained from the real cheap shot: “She Makes A Man Want To Speak Spanish.”