Doug Muzzio Quotations

He needs to throw the mayor off balance so people will look unfavorably at the mayor. He's got to get under the mayor's skin.

I think voters are expecting a competent mayor, somebody who can get things done and get them done fairly. We're in sort of a post-party politics period here, where the traditional tribal politics are being replaced by a competency model.

To a great extent, Giuliani is still St. Rudy. He's still riding high on 9/11, though when it comes down to it, he's going to have a tough time in the Republican primaries as a pro-gun-control, pro-gay rights, pro-abortion rights candidate.

What this says is that the Democratic Party is not a fully functioning party. It means that it has lost its base and some sense of its direction. One of the things that's going on here is a lot of soul searching. . . . There are discussions of the old tribal politics being replaced by competence and performance politics.

What does he get out of it? He ceases to be irrelevant. There's chest thumping here. He's saying, 'I'm not irrelevant.' He's in the news. He's dominating the agenda.

Bloomberg may not engage or inspire. But as CEO, he knows how to manage a situation and stay cool.

Actually, I think Rudy has more charm than Eliot.

You don't throw out a mayor who's got a decent-to-good record. You certainly don't throw him out in favor of an opponent who's got a less-than-compelling message.

There was enough dust on his desk to have an archeological dig.

They're not giving Freddy a breath. They're not giving him one news cycle. They step on every one of his stories.

It's mind-blowing. She is raising money at a presidential level.

It's the race you'd like to forget. You can't win with this cast.

It looks like it is the third party, and in some cases, a pivotal one.

They brought him up from the minors, and it doesn't look like he can play in the majors yet.

Not only is the playing field not level, it's vertical, and Mike Bloomberg is standing on top of it.

The institution would have been crippled. It would have been without credibility.

In the transit strike and even before that, he's come across as a feisty fighter, a real mayor of the people.

Being attacked by the left is not exactly a bad thing right now.

I'd rather go to dinner with Rudy, wouldn't you? Rudy has more personality.

The mayor took his pain early on. Tax increases were substantial and hurtful, but they hurt early on, and he had time to recover.