Mayor Bloomberg's got a problem. OK, OK, he got more than a few, some come with the job, some are of his own making, and others have to do with being a Billionaire Democrat-cum-Republican who is very unpopular in both parties.
On the one hand, he's got Bush and the convention coming to town in August (who really wants to be in NYC in August, btw? - I hope it's 105 w/ 80% humidity every day they are here). Bush will likely make a play for the post 9/11 glory at Ground Zero.
On the other hand, he's a Republican mayor of a city that is 5:1 registered Democrats, which means he needs at least 1/2 of the Democratic vote in 2005 to get re-elected.
It seems that Bloomberg is only starting to get the idea that having the GOP convention in NYC is not such a good idea after all.
3/4 of a million people shut down the Upper East Side in protest of the war less than a year ago, and there will be a dress rehearsal for the convention proitests on March 20 on Madison Ave. The plans for protests in August are wide ranging, but many swear to prevent Bush from ever even getting to Ground Zero.
The first question is, how is Bloomberg gonna play this? The second (and more important) question is - how is the media going to portray the convention/protests?