Mayor Mike Bloomberg has avoided the trap, into which Rudy Giuliani frequently fell, of serving as a foil to Al Sharpton. Bloomberg has met often with black leaders, including Sharpton, and has quickly headed off all opportunities for mass protests. Earlier this year, when a policeman shot a young black man on a rooftop in Brooklyn, Raymond Kelly—the extremely astute police commissioner—suspended the cop immediately, a step that probably no previous commissioner would have taken. In the past, if just to avoid conflicts with the police union, commissioners have given cops the benefit of doubt in such circumstances.

Sharpton may soon be digging his hole deeper in New York politics. Last fall, after Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel endorsed Gen. Wesley Clark for president, Sharpton angrily announced that he would run Adam Clayton Powell IV against Rangel in the next House election. Rangel (who has since shifted allegiances to Kerry) is the dean of New York state's congressional delegation, the political prince of Harlem, and probably the most powerful elected black official in the United States. If Sharpton doesn't back off from his challenge, he could alienate many of his supporters (who support Rangel just as much, if not more) and make a dangerous enemy out of Rangel.