GQ named NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg its "Leader Of the Year" in its upcoming "Men of the Year" issue.
Scorned by right-wingers for his social liberalism, reviled by some liberals for his avid support of developers, he is a one-man party of the "sensible middle" that so many voters and commentators claim to want.
In the article, the Mayor claims the so-called 'ground zero mosque' issue was a fabrication of angry politicians and a sleepless media cycle:
Keep in mind these guys don't have the money to build a mosque and there's already a mosque down there. This is an issue on the stump, in the polls, with the op-ed writers...
You're saying this is an issue manufactured by politicians, and very much the kind of thing people hate about politics nowadays?
A hundred percent. None of this stuff is done on a rational basis. It's all in the world of the twenty-four-hour news cycle and of the blogs, and also the economics of the news business. You know the old joke: "If it bleeds, it leads." Well, the news business is so tough that if today it's not bleeding, they take a knife to it.
The article comes complete with a slate-gray, almost Churchillian portrait fitting of the billionaire mayor.
Photo: Inez Van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin/GQ