The 74-year-old had expressed interest in the job in the summer when he stated the role would represent “something new, stimulating and useful to do”.
However, Mr Geldof admitted that his ultimate decision to retract that interest was “a timing thing” more than anything else.
“If it was last year or next year, I’d have gone for it,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
“I wanted to try something different, something that was stimulating, something that would be of value.”
His presidential ambition ended at the point where a phone call to Taoiseach Micheál Martin revealed the Fianna Fáil route had was a no-go due to the party already having chosen its candidate, former Dublin football manager Jim Gavin, who withdrew from the race in early October.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin (Brian Lawless/PA)
“I only called the Taoiseach and late in the day he’d already made his decision, and so had the other party.”
He also doubted his ability to garner sufficient support from the county councils for a nomination, though he is confident he would have been a good candidate in the race, despite confessing to not being everyone’s favourite.
“I may not have made it with the county councils because people are very ambivalent about me,” he said.
“I would have liked the scrap and I would have liked to engage in that and the election process itself.”
Assessing the two-person contest for the next president, Mr Geldof maintains that he would have been well in with a chance.
“You know, I think I could have done the job,” he said.
“This sounds terrible. I think I would have been good at the job.”
He added that he has been following the race closely, describing both ladies on the ballot paper – Independent Catherine Connolly and Fine Gael nominee Heather Humphreys – as “two capable and nice people”.
He had stated last month that the “novelty” of the job would have worn off and that he would miss his kids and grandkids in England.
“Is this really what I wanted to do in the last lap of my life?” he said he asked himself.
Mr Geldof was speaking today ahead of the 50th anniversary of the Boomtown Rats’ first ever gig on Bolton Street in Dublin on Halloween night.
Recalling that gig, Mr Geldof said the band’s performance was met with a level of appreciation he never could have expected.
The Boomtown Rats in 1978 featuring Bob Geldof (centre)
“About an hour in, we took a break. Much to my dismay, people were clapping.
“Nobody had ever clapped at me for anything I’d ever done in my life.”
Inspired, he said he briskly walked over to the blackboard “full of bravado” to erase the band’s original name Nightlife Thugs and replace it with what became its name today.
Mr Geldof attended the unveiling of a commemorative plaque to the group earlier today at Technological University Dublin (TUD), the location of their first gig 50 years ago.