With Opposition Research, Tone Is Revealing

-- Zachary A. Goldfarb

Just a Dinner Date

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is heading to New Hampshire this weekend, following in the path of many a presidential candidate. Yet, he insists, he's no candidate.

"People will read into the fact that I'm going to be in New Hampshire tomorrow," Bloomberg said yesterday on his radio show. "The truth of the matter is I'm going to be in New Hampshire just for dinner" -- at his girlfriend's college reunion.

As for running for president, he said, "I don't think the country is quite ready for me."

-- Associated Press

Speaking Directly

Democrats Chris Dodd and Bill Richardson are objecting to a requirement that all presidential candidates in a debate on the Spanish-language television network Univision speak in English.

The two have signed a letter to Univision, which is trying to organize a Democratic presidential debate for Sept. 9 in Miami. The audio would be translated into Spanish.

Both candidates speak Spanish fluently and say they would prefer to address Spanish-speaking viewers without a translator. Dodd, the senator from Connecticut who wrote the letter, and Richardson, the New Mexico governor who signed on, embraced the debate with the understanding that they would be able to speak Spanish, and both campaigns say they feel that the rules have been altered to benefit those who don't.

-- Associated Press