New York City mayors continue to believe, for some inexplicable reason, that they were chosen to run for the White House.

It was understandable why Giuliani, coming off a heroic performance as mayor (and that’s even before 9/11) launched a presidential bid. I supported him at the time, but his campaign was a poorly planned mess.

Presidential campaigns by Bloomberg and Bill de Blasio were much more inexplicable. Particularly the latter, when Bill de Blasio launched his presidential run, everyone in New York City hated him. 

So why not run for the big job?

Mayor Eric Adams has hardly been in office and he’s already thinking about it.

Mayor Adams may be eyeing a White House run if President Biden doesn’t seek a second term, confidantes and City Hall insiders told The Post.

“Eric has told me repeatedly that he thinks that he has a platform to run for national office, for president in 2024. He has said that repeatedly. He thinks New York is a national platform. He thinks the national party has gotten too far to the left and he thinks he has a platform to win,” a person close to the mayor said.

A Brooklyn Democratic elected official who was also frequently in talks with the mayor said Adams was “considering a White House run in 2024 if Biden doesn’t seek re-election,” adding that Adams’ advisor Ingrid Lewis-Martin was “running point” on the issue.

If Adams were to turn around the city, he might have some kind of shot, but I don’t see that happening in the next year and a half. Or probably at all.

I’ve been the guy pouring cold water on newfound enthusiasm for Adams. But apart from all that, he’s unlikely to do it because his hands are mostly tied. Cuomo and New York State Dems passed pro-crime bills that eliminated bail and made arresting criminals futile. The City Council and most city officials are woke lefties who support even more extreme measures. Never mind the Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg.

Adams has no real plan for turning things around except getting more cops on the job and giving them more discretion. And while that might dial back the crime rates a bit, but it would take a much more aggressive set of measures akin to the Giuliani era to move the dial.

Furthermore there was a growing national turnaround when Giuliani came along. 

Adams is more likely to be another Ed Koch, trying to manage some of the chaos, making some headway, but unable to turn the city around. And that’s the best case scenario. The likely one is that Adams gets clobbered by all sides and then finally brought down by a scandal. He’s a charismatic retail politician who is way out of his depth and doesn’t have Koch and Giuliani’s micromanaging skills, just their egos. 

And ego, as we’ve seen repeatedly, isn’t enough to run things if you don’t know what you’re doing.