New York to Country: 'C'mere!'

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17, 2006 — -- It would be the political version of the Subway Series.

Instead of pitting New York's baseball teams, the Yankees and the Mets, against each other, it would match Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton against former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the 2008 presidential contest.

Yes, it may be a long shot to happen, but far from impossible.

Two other New Yorkers have also been mentioned for a possible presidential bid: outgoing Gov. George Pataki and Michael Bloomberg, Giuliani's successor in the mayor's chair.

But Bloomberg says he will not run, and the buzz has centered on a Rudy-Hillary contest.

A woman on Manhattan's Upper West Side did not want to be identified as we took to the sidewalks there to take the electorate's pulse, but she told us she was excited at the prospect of an all-New York matchup: "We raise good people."

Of course, some New Yorkers still say Clinton isn't really one of them.

Some expressed ambivalence like Athena Foroglou: "Yes and no, meaning she doesn't have to be a good New Yorker to do a good job of representing New York. She doesn't have to be born here to be an accomplished politician."

Most of those we spoke to had decided that her Illinois birthplace and Arkansas background no longer mattered, not after she had won two terms as the junior senator from the Empire State.

For a brief period, Giuliani and Clinton paired off against each other in the 2000 Senate race.

Early in the contest, Clinton made a PR slip during a trip to the Middle East when she embraced the wife of then-Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Suha Arafat.

The hug came shortly after Suha Arafat delivered a speech accusing Israel of poisoning the water that Palestinians drink.

Giuliani pounced, saying Clinton should have immediately denounced the accusation.

The media loved the race, which was shaping up as a classic struggle between heavyweights. But Giuliani pulled out of the campaign after discovering he had prostate cancer.

Now Giuliani has set up an organization in New York to explore the possibility of a run for the White House. Clinton is also known to be seriously looking at a run for the house she and her husband once occupied.