(Photo: Patrick McMullan)

Time Warner chairman Richard Parsons is absolutely, positively not running for mayor. “I think it was Sherman who said, I’m not running, and I won’t serve if I’m elected,” he said at a Time Warner Center screening on August 12. “I have said that before—it’s just that nobody’s ever listened. They’ve said, ‘Oh, but he has his hands in his pocket,’ or, ‘He had his fingers crossed.’ My view is that Michael Bloomberg should be the mayor again, and we should work with him to change the term limits. He’s done a terrific job, and I would look forward to four more years of Bloomberg.” But Bloomberg has expressed enthusiasm for a Parsons candidacy. “I know,” Parsons said. “But my destiny lies along a different path. Whatever I do next—and it very well could be in public service— I want to be passionate about it. And I have to be honest with you: I’ve never woken up a day in my life and said, ‘What I really want to be is mayor.’ ”

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Related:

• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Andrew M. Goldstein
• Table of Contents: Aug 25, 2008 issue of New York | Subscribe!