


''I think that the president and Senator Kerry both have a right to talk about, and a responsibility to talk about, what they did,'' the mayor said. He then added, ''9/11 happened while the president was in office, and how he conducted himself is something that the public certainly should look at before they go to the voting booth.

''I think it's also fair for Senator Kerry to bring up his heroic service during the Vietnam War,'' the mayor said. ''You look at people's pasts, see what they did, it gives you a feeling about what they will do in the future.''

He also dismissed the latest sniping about the campaign ads as just ''politicians complaining.''

''The other guy can't do it, but they can do it; let's get serious here,'' he said. ''You should both be able to talk intelligently, and we are a mature enough, understanding enough populace that we can have a discussion about what went on.''

Some political observers took the mayor's comments as yet another sign that he finds himself in the difficult position of supporting a Republican president in an overwhelmingly Democratic city that will nevertheless play host to the Republican National Convention this summer. ''He can ill afford to offend Democrats who will vote for John Kerry by huge percentages,'' said Hank Sheinkopf, a longtime Democratic consultant.

Doug Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at Baruch College, said the mayor's comments also reflected his internal ambivalence. ''I think that the mayor constantly is walking this tightrope between his personal political beliefs and his public party identification,'' he said. ''They are often in conflict because essentially the mayor is a liberal Democrat.''