Metro

Mayor is Mitt or miss

They’re at it again, those mischievous political elves whose job is to keep Mayor Bloomberg in the national spotlight.

Mayoral aides are spinning a yarn that Bloomberg might make an endorsement in this year’s presidential race, although he’s publicly criticized President Obama on the budget, and challenger Mitt Romney has taken positions at odds with the mayor’s on issues from gay rights to government funding of Planned Parenthood.

“He’s closer to one of them on social issues, he’s closer to the other on fiscal issues,” said one person in the Bloomberg camp.

Bloomberg’s best bet, it would seem, is to stay neutral.

That’s what he did in 2008, arguing he’d have to work with the eventual winner and it didn’t make much sense to pick sides between Obama and Republican rival John McCain.

Before adopting that handy philosophy, Bloomberg backed President George W. Bush in 2004 and, with clever maneuvering, didn’t endanger his own re-election chances in 2005.

With 18 months left in office, some aides say the mayor could create a big splash by making a presidential endorsement again.

They argue he wouldn’t risk much in the way of retaliation if his candidate were to flop, since he’d be on his way out in 2013.

“Everything’s in play,” insisted one aide.

The chances of Bloomberg lining up with Romney are slim, despite the fact that some of his business buddies are promoting the Republican.

“Let him try to do Romney,” warned one veteran Democratic consultant. “He’d be [hanged] in New York. Obama is going to get 75 percent of the vote here, no matter what.”

Another Democratic insider said the person who has the most to worry about if Bloomberg and Romney team up is City Council Speaker Christine Quinn.

“If the mayor does Romney, it diminishes his influence in the [2013] Democratic mayoral primary,” said the insider.

“A Mitt Romney endorsement is not going to be seen as a positive by the cohort of voters — especially African-Americans . . . With her relationship to the mayor, having him tied to the Republican who potentially might beat the first African-American president in the nation’s history is not going to help her.”

Whether he formally endorses Quinn or not, Bloomberg would certainly prefer her as his successor to the other Democrats in the current field.

And whether she likes it or not, Quinn’s close ties to the mayor over the past few years are going to become an issue in the race even if the Bloomberg-Romney long shot doesn’t come in.

“She needs to put some space between herself and the mayor,” advised one Democratic source.

david.seifman@nypost.com