It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's Super-Mayor

As the presidential campaign heats up, we can look forward to inevitable photo ops of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama hoisting brewskis and wielding hunting rifles to prove their manly-man bona fides.  With luck, we will avoid a Dukakis-in-a-tank or John-Kerry-windsurfing moment.

They might as well give up, though, because Newark, NJ, mayor Cory Booker has clinched the title of America's Machoest Pol, by carrying a woman out of a burning building.  Let me repeat that: On Thursday, the mayor of Newark, NJ, CARRIED A WOMAN OUT OF A BURNING BUILDING.

While I applaud Mayor Booker's courage, I worry about the precedent.  We can't have our municipal chief executives risking life and limb every time a fire breaks out or a cat needs to be rescued from a tree.  These men (and women) have budget committee meetings to oversee.

More worrisome, though, is the thought that other politicians, competitive by nature, will see Booker's actions as a challenge. But Booker, 42, is probably in better shape than your average politician.

I would hate for New York's Michael Bloomberg to feel that he needs to match his cross-river counterpart rescue for rescue.  It's unnerving enough that Bloomberg frequently pilots his own helicopter all around New York; he may decide to start hunting down drug dealers or battling the Staten Island insurgency to keep up with Booker.

Politicians should stick to doing what they do best: clogging the arteries of the body politic.  Leave the heroics to the heroes.  (Although if Rep. Paul Ryan feels like running into a burning building, more power to him.)