Rudy's Unlikely Heir

Riding Giuliani's coattails into city hall, billionaire Michael Bloomberg is about to discover how the second hardest job in America got even harder

Late last year, Rudy Giuliani was sitting in the library at Gracie Mansion, offering career advice to a visitor--billionaire media mogul Michael Bloomberg. The financial-data tycoon was thinking about changing jobs. Among the possibilities he'd been mulling: President of the United States, Secretary-General of the United Nations and--his top choice--mayor of New York City, and never mind that he had no experience in government. Giuliani could see he was serious about the third idea. A lifelong Democrat, Bloomberg intended to switch parties in order to have a clear shot at the Republican nomination. Giuliani, who has known Bloomberg for years, understood...

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