To deal with what you have to deal with as mayor or president, there has to be an overriding psychological or professional or emotional gratification that would let you go through all the angst.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I strongly believe being mayor is the public post in which you have the greatest opportunity to change peoples' lives for the better. People live in cities, not states or nations. As a mayor, you are connected directly to citizens.
As mayor, I used to always feel the important thing is that people respect me, not love me - but it is really much nicer when they love you, too. I'm going to try to keep it that way.
You have the biggest impact on controlling, on affecting local lives as mayor. It's so much more important than being a state legislator.
I really do believe that mayors have the political position to really change people's lives.
When the burdens of the presidency seem unusually heavy, I always remind myself it could be worse. I could be a mayor.
A mayor is a symbol and a public face of what a city bureaucracy provides its citizens.
The mayoral mentality is incredibly valuable. I don't want to lose that.
I may not be the world's best glad-handing politician, but I've been elected mayor twice. I understand politics. And I definitely understand where the state line is.
The job of mayor and Governor is becoming more and more like the job of university president, which I used to be; it looks like you are in charge, but you are not.
If you run for mayor, people say you're being egotistical. If you decide you won't run for mayor, people say you're being self-centered and egotistical.