Giulliani suffering from cancer

By Sridhar Krishnaswami

WASHINGTON, APRIL 28. There is a sense of disbelief in New York. The Mayor of the City, Mr. Rudy Giulliani, announced on Thursday that he has been diagnosed with prostrate cancer which is in the early stages and one that is treatable. From a political perspective, the announcement adds more than just an element of uncertainty in the State's Senate race which all along came down to between the popular Mayor and the First Lady, Mrs Hillary Rodham Clinton. Nationally too, the attention was in the New York Senate race, for it had all the trappings of a down-to-the- stretch battle.

The speculation in New York is that in the next four weeks things may change in the sense that Mr. Giulliani will face off with Mrs Clinton this November after all. This stems from a belief that getting treated in the very early stages could result in the Mayor shaking off the illness and getting down to business. But even if the Mayor is able to beat back his temporary setback, the big question is whether he would be able to run a sustained campaign against one of his vigorous opponents. And the battle for the Senate seat was not going to be easy by any stretch of imagination.

As a professional opponent, Mrs Clinton did what most would have done under the circumstances - offering words of comfort to the Mayor. But the political world of New York State being what it is, the Conservatives have taken it to heart that their popular candidate is not totally fit to face the challenge from the Democrats.

For all the noise made by Conservatives against Mrs Clinton - one of the first being that she is an ``outsider'' who has no business contesting in the State - the acknowledgement and the realisation was that this Senate race was going to be a tough one.

And no one understood this better than Mr. Giulliani who knew from the word go that cleaning up the City is one thing and going after the interests of the State and the challenges of the U.S. Senate was a totally different ballgame.

Supporters of Mr. Giulliani are confident that he would be back in the Senate fight but at this point, many concede that there is uncertainty whether the popular Mayor would be able to pull it off.

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Section  : International
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