Rudy and Mike: Will Either of the Mayors Who Saved New York Get the Chance to Save America?

Abstract

The author discusses Rudolph Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg, the two most recent Mayors of New York City, and their prospects for the Presidency. While the New York mayoralty has historically been a ``political dead end," Giuliani is a front-runner for the Republican nomination and Bloomberg is being discussed as a potential independent candidate. The author briefly examines their leadership styles and offers some ideas about how they might deal with aspects of the Presidency. Finally, the author notes the possibility that two other ``New Yorkers" also are serious candidates: Senator Hillary Clinton, who was elected to the Senate while still First Lady, and Fred Dalton Thompson, the unannounced candidate for the Republican nomination. Thompson, who served in the U.S. Senate for eight years (1995-2003), and before that had come to national prominence as the Minority Counsel during the Senate's Watergate Hearings (1973), is known to many voters as ``Arthur Branch," the fictional Manhattan District Attorney, a character that he has played for the last five seasons (2002-2007) on the NBC television program, ``Law and Order."