Photograph of Mayor Bloomberg speaking at the State of the City address by Mary Altaffer/AP Mayor Bloomberg sounded some broad themes in his seventh State of the City address. Held at the new ice skating rink at Flushing-Meadows Corona Park in Queens, his speech outlined initiatives the city and various city agencies will undertake (digital 911 so you can send the NYPD photos from cell phones by this summer! reforming the Board of Elections!......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is busy trying to rally support in Florida, one of many big states with primaries in the coming weeks. He didn't really focus on the Iowa caucus (where he placed fifth - after Ron Paul) or New Hampshire (so he claims; he managed to place 4th, ahead of Ron Paul) and flew out of the Granite State before the polls were closed. His poor showing in the first two political showdowns......

Tim Russert has invited all the presidential candidates to appear on Meet the Press, and yesterday former Mayor Rudy Giuliani appeared. We imagine many New Yorkers watching the program gnashed their teeth and/or swore at the TV (we happened to do both), as Giuliani tried to answer questions ranging from the straightforward (Giuliani's Iowa poll numbers, Russert asked, "Fifth place, is that a problem?") to the interesting (Russert on Giuliani's consulting business: "A Las......

Last week, a CNN/WMUR poll with "likely Republican voters in New Hampshire" gave a snapshot of what they were thinking and Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign got the bad news that not only had his poll numbers slid from 24% to 16%, he was now in third place after former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney (33%, up from 25%) and Arizona Senator John McCain (18%). Third after McCain! So, Giuliani hustled to New Hampshire to make......

Democratic presidential frontrunner and New York Senator Hillary Clinton is feeling bruised from the Tuesday night debate, where the big moment was when Clinton gave meandering support of Governor Eliot Spitzer's controversial driver's license plan for illegal immigrants. Spitzer's most recent iteration of the plan involves a three tiered system that neither state Democrats, Republicans or illegal immigrants' rights advocates seem to like very much. Anyway, here's what Clinton said during the debate when questioned......

The Associated Press and Ipsos asked Americans to pick which candidates would make the scariest Halloween costumes. Naturally, frontrunners Senator Hillary Clinton and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani won in their respective political parties (there were separate polls for the two parties). Clinton led Democrats with 37% while Giuliani had 14%, and no other candidates broke 6%, giving them resounding wins. And we found this interesting: "While a predictable two-thirds of Republicans picked [Clinton], she......

In the wake of U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's resignation last month, President Bush will nominate former U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mukasey for the position. Mukasey, who was born in the Bronx and educated at Columbia and Yale Law School, was "appointed to the federal bench" by Ronald Reagan and has presided over terrorism trials, such as the trial of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. He is also a friend of former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (he......

If The New York Times needs a rationale for allegedly discounting the ad rate it offered the advocacy group MoveOn for its ad alleging that General Petraeus was betraying his country my misrepresenting the true state of Iraq, we suggest characterizing it as a loss leader, because a lot of ink is being spilled and paid for in response to it. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani hasn't even won the Republican nomination yet,......

For better or worse, thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's assertion of political independence, we'll be hearing about an all-New Yorker presidential race for months to come. Last week, a Quinnipiac poll found that New York State would go to Democratic front runner Senator Hillary Clinton, over former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Bloomberg. Clinton would get 43% of state votes, Giuliani would get 29% and Bloomberg would get 16%. If Bloomberg's not in the picture, Clinton still......

There's nothing like testifying in front of Congress as the Daily News puts you on the front cover and asks you to "come clean" about the post-WTC collapse toxic air in an editorial. Today, Christie Todd Whitman appeared before a Democratic-controlled Congress; the Daily News editorial demanded that former EPA head explain why she and the EPA led New Yorkers to believe the air downtown was safe. During her testimony, Whitman spent the time denouncing......

Plans for a World Trade Center memorial continue to crawl along, and WNBC has a story today about the personal donations that are funding the effort and the memorial itself. $300 million has been raised to build a set of reflecting pools and a museum at Ground Zero, much of that money coming from a fundraising drive over the last six months. The story includes a list of top donors, and we found it interesting......

As if former Mayor Rudy Giuliani were giving a perfect example of his shiny, accessible campaign demeanor, which is decidedly different from his mayoral behavior, none was better than the Tuesday confrontation between the presidential candidate and some protesters. You can see a video on WNBC 4 where a two people separately ask Giuliani why he let first responders go into the World Trade Center, if he knew that the towers would fall down. From......

As rival Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney continues to gain ground, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is still leading in national surveys. However, Giuliani has been facing criticism over his abortion stance, which has most recently been refined as something like I believe that women should have a choice, though I'm morally against abortion. And with that, he's trying to convince the conservative voters out there that he's a good choice. He gave this opinion at......

It's fun with poll numbers time! Quinnipiac University released results of a poll that shows Senator Hillary Clinton besting former Mayor Rudy Giuliani 50-42 in New York State. Here are the match-ups Quinnipiac asked about:- Clinton beats Sen. John McCain 55-34 percent - Giuliani ties Illinois Sen. Barack Obama 44 - 44 percent - 2004 vice presidential candidate John Edwards tops Giuliani 47 - 43 percent; - Clinton over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 61......

The first line of a NY Times Caucus Blog post on Giuliani speaking today: "Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani invoked Ronald Reagan at least a dozen times in his speech this afternoon before a fairly young audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington." Is Reagan Rudy's new 9/11? The Politico says there's a "Mood of Gloom at CPAC" and people are wistful for Reagan, so, clearly Giuliani knows his audience. The......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani got good and bad news from the Quinnipiac Poll. The good news: He beats Senator Hillary Clinton, 48% to her 43% in a national poll conducted last week. The bad news: It's still over 18 months to go until Election 2008. Quinnipiac drilled down to the red, blue and purple state level: Giuliani beats Clinton 55-38 in states that voted Republican in the 2004 election. Interestingly, he ties her 46-46 in......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani visited South Carolina and said, "There's a real good chance" he'll run for President. While this doesn't sound like new news, it's apparently his "most succinct" comments (per the Times) to date about his 2008 ambitions. But then he said he wasn't sure if he could make a "unique contribution" and his aides wouldn't comment further. Giuliani did, though, say, "The fact is I appeal to conservative Christians the way I......

While former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is interested in running for President, what with visiting NH this past weekend, it's unclear how the GOP feels about him. The Post reports that the NY State GOP has Giuliani's big 2008 rival, Senator John McCain, to appear at a fund-raiser in Manhattan. One Giuliani supporter says, "It's a slight," but the NYS GOP claims that the party just needs a lot of money (it's broke) and all the......

Ooh, the NY Times reports that Senator Hillary Clinton had lunch with former Senator Al D'Amato and former Mayor Ed Koch yesterday at the Four Seasons, which Four Seasons co-owner Julian Niccolini likened to "the Second Coming of Christ." And how, as D'Amato is a notable Republican power player. Apparently the trio have lunch at least once a year, and Clinton picked up this meal's check. D'Amato and Koch told the Times' Patrick Healy......

Yesterday, Governor Pataki took a few former governors on a tour of the World Trade Center, because if there's any place that needs more politicians, it's Ground Zero. The ex-governors included Massachusetts' Bill Weld, Tennesse's Don Sundquist, South Carolina's David Beasley and Iowa's Terry Brandstand. Well, that doesn't smell like a "before I leave office, let's invite potential allies in a presidential run" stunt at all! Pataki's spokesman said that the group would be......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential machinations are getting more serious. He's planning a $2,100 per ticket fundraiser at the Marriott Marquis on December 19 and he's hired Dubya's CFO from his 2004 campaign. Sandra Pack was Bush's treasury director in 2000 and had been working as an assistant secretary in the Treasury Department. The Daily News reports, "Experts surmised that a veteran like Pack would never give up a steady job and dedicate herself to......

A week and half after forming a presidential exploratory committee in NY State, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani has filed federal papers to start a presidential exploratory committee. A Giuliani adviser told ABC News, "This is something that gets done by candidates looking at potential runs. It's crossing the 't' in exploratory." Too bad exploratory doesn't have an "i" in it either! Anyway, Republican pollster Frank Luntz tells the Times people shouldn't count moderate Republican Giuliani......

That thud you heard this afternoon? The jaws of Jeanine Pirro's campaign staffers. It turns out that Republican candidate for NY State Attorney General Pirro is under state and federal criminal investigation. WNBC's Jonathan Dienst had the scoop: State and federal agencies were looking into whether Pirro eavesdropped on her husband, who she suspected might be cheating on her. (Well, he did father a love child a couple years into their marriage.) So she......

Hmm. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani is going around the country to help raise money for other Republican candidates. The AP reports that he was in Cleveland for Senator Mike DeWine last night, and today, he'll be in Arkansas for Asa Hutchinson (running for governor) as well as in Pennsylvania for Senator Rick Santorum and the All-Star Game. Then tomorrow he'll be at fundraisers for Lynn Swann, running for governor of Pennsylvania, and Maryland Governor Robert......

Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld dropped out of the Republican race, officially letting the much lesser known John Faso take the Republican nomination worry-free. The maneuvering seemed to come after various state GOP bigwigs asked Weld to step down after Weld, who was initially supported by Governor Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, made a poor, but viable-enough-to-force-a-primary showing during the GOP convention. Faso is conservative, while Weld was much more moderate, and the GOP......

Zacarias Moussaoui, the man who allegedly would have hijacked a fifth plane on September 11, 2001, was sentenced to life in prison. Last month, a jury had okayed a death penalty for him, but after weeks of testimony from assorted witnesses - who included former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and victims' families for both the prosecution and defense - the jury decided that Moussaoui's punishment would be jail. The defense had been arguing that Moussaoui was......

Yesterday, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani testified at the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui, telling jurors about what he saw, thought and felt on September 11, 2001. He described seeing people jump from the World Trade Center towers and said, "By the time the second plane hit, we knew it was a terrorist attack. This was war. This was a battle." Giuliani didn't look at Moussaoui much, but Moussaoui did watch Giuliani. Family members......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani told a crowd at the Forbes Global CEO Conference that he's going to decide on running for President in 2008 next year. Sigh, this will make Gothamist crazy for the next year, the inclusion of Giuliani as a potential GOP candidate, because we really doubt he'll run at this point yet we'll still have to deal with the stories about him "thinking" about a run. While Giuliani did show unflappable calm......

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani happened to be in London for a conference yesterday, near the Liverpool Street station where one of the bombs exploded. As Rudy Giuliani has earned a soft spot our heart (bless the love-hate relationships) and though the chances of him being in a major world city for business is very high, it was just surreal to hear he was there. And for news programs looking for Americans in London to give......

Because we were skimming the Post, Gothamist first thought we read in the article about what's in Republican Convention delegates' goodie bags "macaroni shaped like Rudy Giuliani" but it was really "elephant-shaped macaroni and cheese and a book by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani." Macaroni shaped like Rudy Giuliani would be more amusing...think of it - a pasta combover! Some ether swag Republicans may be getting: Yankee tickets, digital cameras from B&H, DVDs about Ellis Island,......