City Hall was initially at a loss for words when The [Daily] News emailed at 4 p.m. asking why the POW/MIA flag wasn’t flying. Three hours later, at 7:10 p.m., a spokesman emailed a bland response.

“Voters in Iowa seem to be more of a priority for the mayor than veterans in New York,” [a veterans’ advocate] scoffed. “And I think it’s especially egregious less than a week from Memorial Day.”

Still, his day job never felt far away. The mayor was heckled throughout the event by supporters of the Central Park horse-carriage industry, which he has pledged to eliminate. Reporters peppered him with questions about crimes back in Manhattan, including a recent spate of assaults involving a man with a hammer.

According to the Quinnipiac poll, New Yorkers are mixed about their mayor’s national ambitions. Forty-six percent of voters said his involvement in affairs outside the city was distracting him from his duties; 42 percent said it was not. Half of voters in the poll said the mayor did not have strong leadership qualities; 44 percent said he did.

As for his own record, the mayor apparently thinks non-New Yorkers are the ones who really grasp the breadth of his achievements.

“A lot of people outside New York City understand what happened in the first year of New York City better than people in New York City,” he told Rolling Stone.

Among the far-reaching ambitions of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s OneNYC plan, one proposal stood out in the transportation world on Wednesday: the study of a new subway line along Utica Avenue in Brooklyn.

Transit advocates quickly pointed out that Mr. de Blasio had not offered a financing plan for an extension, and that the authority already had a $15 billion gap for its five-year capital plan for improvements to the aging system.

“With Warren saying she’s not running, de Blasio and his advisers are trying to position the mayor as the ‘draft’ candidate for the left in 2016. That’s why he refused to endorse Hillary last week,” contended the operative, who is involved in presidential politics.

“Why would your ad maker be traveling with you in a non-campaign year? Why was he there with de Blasio in Iowa unless you’re trying for something bigger?” asked the operative.