Ah, but I'm not running for office.
I'm expressing my own opinion about something, and not putting myself up for a position of leadership which would give me authority over you.
If he were running for President of SF, he could say anything he wanted about any other part of the world, because the only people he would need to lead would be them.
This reminds me of the whole "Barack didn't mean it" thing with the Canadian government and his NAFTA remarks a while back.
