What he is really hoping for, Mayor Michael Bloomberg often likes to joke, is a subway series.

The enthusiasm, the civic pride, the tax revenues—so much would be generated from an all-New York World Series.

In baseball, this only happened once, in 2000—the same year Rudolph Giuliani bowed out early from his Senate campaign.

The Mets and the Yankees squared off in the fall. Giuliani and Hillary Clinton did not.

The 2008 presidential election was supposed to be the second chance for the race that was not, on a larger scale.

A year ago, six months ago, the political experts were sure they knew how things would go. By Super Tuesday, Clinton would be the Democratic nominee. Giuliani would be the Republican. And just for good measure, and because he saw an opening, Bloomberg would jump into the race too, as a self-financed independent.

All the campaign headquarters were going to be within walking distance of subway stops.

All the town’s political consultants were going to be flush with business.

All the local reporters were going to go national.

Oh, the drama.

Oh, the opportunities.

Oh, the frequent flier miles out of JFK, the stump speeches in Central Park, the Statue of Liberty campaign commercial backdrops, the knishes on the campaign trail, the Big Apple pride.

Oh, the three-way presidential subway series that will not be.


Then came Florida. Just like John Lindsay, the last New York City mayor to run for president, Giuliani ended his flailing campaign in the Sunshine State with a whimper. America rejected America’s mayor.

A month later came Bloomberg’s New York Times op-ed. He would not be a candidate, he wrote, using much the same language as he had over two and a half years of press conferences denials. But this time everyone accepted his finality. The secret strategy sessions were over. The campaign that could not be would not be.

Though battered in the past few weeks, going into Pennsylvania, Clinton says she is still very much in the running. But even if she wins the nomination, she will not face Giuliani and Bloomberg.

In other words, the great fantasy of the New York presidential showdown is over.

Watching Clinton face Arizona Sen. John McCain will have its allure. Watching McCain battle Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for the White House will be engaging too. But for New Yorkers, it just will not be the same.

There has not been a two-way New Yorker race since President Franklin Roosevelt trounced Thomas Dewey on the way to a fourth term in 1944. There has not been a three-way New Yorker race ever. With New Yorkers in recent years relegated to vice-presidential slots on also-ran tickets—Rep. Geraldine Ferraro in 1984 and former Rep. Jack Kemp in 1996—the possibility of a clash of the hometown titans this year was almost too exciting for most people to comprehend. For New York political junkies, the Clinton-Giuliani-Bloomberg race would have been like mainlining Alexander Hamilton’s secret stash with an Empire State Building-sized needle.

“Now you got nothing,” said Jimmy Breslin, the New York author and columnist. “That doesn’t make me happy.”

The presidential candidates should be talking about national issues, Breslin said, like the economy and the Iraq war. But thinking back to the sports pages of a half century ago, when there were three baseball teams to cover and loads of good copy, Breslin said a three-way New Yorker race would simply have been more exciting and entertaining.

“The newspapers, look at the old newspapers,” he said. “It was great.”
And he is not the only one. Other iconic New Yorkers also looked back wistfully.

“It would have been wonderful, but it was never intended to happen,” said former Mayor Ed Koch. “New York would have been the subject of so much attention.”

To Koch, this is a relief. Though he has never made a secret of his distaste for Giuliani, he is a huge fan of both Clinton and Bloomberg. And though he proudly backed Clinton in the Democratic primary, he said repeatedly going into this year that he would keep his options open for the general election, just in case Bloomberg decided to run.

With Bloomberg out of the race, he is no longer torn.

“Thank god I never had to make a decision,” he said.

To Donald Trump—who years ago flirted with becoming a  new york presidential candidate himself— a choice between Clinton, Giuliani and Bloomberg would have been good news for everyone, because that would have made for an election with no bad choices come November.

“All three are great New Yorkers, and great Americans, so it would have been a win no matter what,” he explained.

Plus, Trump noted, hailing from New York might be an asset in the White House. Experience with life in the city could help when meeting with foreign leaders. New York is known for its international air, and that, along with the world’s image of people from the Big Apple, could make negotiations easier.
“New Yorkers are known to be strong and courageous, which represents the U.S. image very well,” Trump insisted.

But though Trump is a big promoter of New York and a fan of the three politicians, he did not see the lack of a three-way race as a problem for the city.
“I’d say that New York and New Yorkers get enough attention already,” Trump explained. “What matters is the entire country, and we should focus on getting the nation back together, whether it’s a New Yorker or not who starts to do that.”

Gay Talese, the author and consummate East-Sider, said he feels the lack of the Big Apple showdown acutely—though only, he said, because Bloomberg will not be in the race.

Talese, who has known every mayor over his last 50 years living in New York, is an enormous supporter of nearly everything Bloomberg has done over the last six years. Had there been a Bloomberg for President campaign, he said, he would have immediately offered his services as a speechwriter.

“I’m depressed that Giuliani didn’t do well, but Bloomberg was the guy I really believed was our gift to the nation,” he said.

To Talese, Clinton is not a New Yorker in the same sense that Giuliani and Bloomberg are. So even though the junior senator remains in the race, as far as Talese is concerned, the last hope that a New Yorker would be in the presidential race ended when Bloomberg published his op-ed.

“I was sorry to see that we don’t have any New Yorker in the race, but it’s not like I need to see the city represented. But in this case, I think the city had a gift to give,” he said. “Of course the city’s going to survive without a presidential candidate, but the nation is at a loss.”

Public relations impresario, Howard Rubenstein, agreed that the nation was at a loss, but the city is too, he said. There would have been no better way to promote New York than a Clinton-Giuliani-Bloomberg race, he said.

“The focus on the assets of New York, and how all three people contributed to building New York—which in fact helped build the nation—would have been a serious aspect of it,” he said. “They would have each one of them say what they did in managing and building New York.”

Though there could also have been a downside. A three-way race would have been a great commercial for New York, he said, but not necessarily for New Yorkers.

“A lot of people don’t like New Yorkers or they think that we’re too pushy,” Rubenstein said. “If the only three candidates were Rudy Giuliani, Clinton and Bloomberg, it would look like New York shanghaied the process.”

But life will go on, he said—especially in New York.

The rest of the country may have a harder time, Rubenstein said, given the consequences. Laughing, he rattled off a possible few.

“Federal support for congestion pricing will be redefined as subsidies for nasal spray, lost in the national debate will be the crucial discussion of meat versus dairy, the Second Avenue Subway tunnel could be left unfinished with Washington converting it into an ethanol holding tank, New York accents may be designated a second language, the Yankees may be confused as anyone living north of the Mason-Dixon line,” he said, “and mayonnaise could become the federally mandated condiment of choice for pastrami.”

Oh well, said famed New York comedian Jackie Mason. Though a proud New Yorker, Mason has never put much stock in having hometown candidates. So now that the great New Yorker showdown will never be, Mason said, he is doing just fine.

For those that are feeling dejected, Mason had some advice: get over it.

“I think if a person’s depressed about it, he must have an empty life and nothing to live for, and a man like that is probably so slow mentally that I don’t think it pays to worry about anybody that stupid,” he said. “If something that has absolutely no consequence of any weight depresses him, then I would take this guy to a sanitarium.”


Still, perhaps the showdown might be saved. A good enough run in Pennsylvania and the other primaries could give Clinton the nomination. A few renegade Draft Bloomberg supporters have yet to accept the mayor’s declaration. Giuliani is doing well on Internet betting sites, as people try to guess who will be McCain’s choice for vice president.

But most New Yorkers, it seems, have come to terms with not having our local sandbox fight projected coast to coast. The parlor games, the speculation, the dinner conversations over the possible Clinton-Giuliani-Bloomberg electoral math—who would have won? who would have carried New York?—are fading into history.

That could mean less business for New Yorkers who earn their living on politics. But with more than 300 candidates expected for next year’s races for citywide office, borough presidents and City Council, said veteran political consultant Hank Sheinkopf, there should soon be enough paychecks to go around.
“For political consultants who are New York-based, it would have been much more interesting if it had been Clinton-Bloomberg-Giuliani in the race,” Sheinkopf said. “Now everyone—at least the New York-based people—are going to have to wait for the 2009 sweepstakes.”

And though a three-way race would undoubtedly have been a year-long extravaganza for every newspaper and television station in town, the local political news business does not seem headed for its own recession, either—so long as Clinton’s campaign continues to stay alive, said Bob Hardt, NY1 executive producer and political director.

“Obviously, the three of them would have been the dream team situation for the New York media, but honestly, I think New York politicos would be thrilled to have any New Yorker still in the presidential race,” he said.

With the Ohio and Texas results in Clinton’s favor, Hardt said, “the tabloids are breathing a sigh of relief.”

The same is true for his station, he said.

“There is the local angle that we can really exploit as a local news station,” he said. “It makes it more interesting for us.”

And if Clinton wins the nomination and the presidency, that will create a new spate of New York political news to report, with all the speculation about who might be appointed to her Senate seat and who might be brought into her administration. New York media outlets may open bureaus in Washington, at least for her first year, Hardt said.

But even if Clinton ultimately falls short and leaves the race with no New York-based candidate, Hardt said the Big Apple’s deep and abiding interest in all things political will likely keep the airwaves full of political news.

Perhaps, said Rubenstein. But without a fight between local candidates to watch, the New York Nielsens for political coverage will not be quite as high for quite as long each night.

“I know New Yorkers will be turning off their televisions a little earlier,” Rubenstein said.

From a non-political public relations perspective, that is good news for anyone looking to get attention for any other story in New York over the next eight months, Rubenstein said. Without the coverage of local candidates sucking up all the available air time, he no longer has to worry about finding ways to get the many people and companies he counts as clients in the spotlight.

“If it were the two guys and the doll running, you wouldn’t have had a moment of open news coverage space on television or magazines,” he said. “I probably would have had to go on a six-month vacation.”

And having a race between three New Yorker presidential candidates worrying about appearing too partial to their home turf could have had a negative impact on getting New York-friendly policies in discussion, said Kathryn Wylde, president and CEO of the Partnership for New York City.

“If anything, my sense is that there would have been overkill to avoid giving any special benefit to New York,” she said.

What there certainly will not be, she said, is a problem for New Yorkers getting access to the presidential candidates, whether or not any of them are from New York. With so much of the national news media and big political donors based here, presidential candidates never have any choice.

“All the presidential candidates make the proverbial trip to New York,” she said. “At least for the purposes of fundraising, they are all honorary New Yorkers.”