The NYPD’s crowd-control and arrest tactics kept the convention largely violence-free. But is preemption’s civil-liberties cost too high?

Carl McCall, the Dems' default choice, would be quite happy with a gubernatorial primary that's about nothing. Andrew Cuomo needs it to be about something. He has three weeks.

If a campaign unfolds in the hinterlands, does it still make noise? Sure -- though sometimes you'd be hard-pressed to tell, given the stinginess of the coverage.

Can a billionaire businessman learn the common touch? Is beating up on Jim Dolan a winning strategy? And could a Republican take a chunk of the black vote? The shape of the campaign to come.

Put Hillary in a room with Suha Arafat or Al Sharpton and there's a festival of finger-wagging; so why the silence when Rudy dines with Roy Innis and Jörg Haider?

Lacking a major threat -- fiscal crisis, racial disharmony, San Pellegrino drought -- the mayoral wannabes struggle to define what they're running for (or against).

It's not surprising that with looming budget cuts and tax hikes, the mayor's popularity is plummeting, but why is he so reluctant to get out and show he's more than a suit?

Masterpieces From the Vitra Design Museum: Furnishing the Modern Era Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution; through February 4.

Between dinner and dildos, comedian Margaret Cho talks about getting off (good), the existence of the G spot (she's agnostic), and Chris Isaak's ukulele (adorable).

George Pataki, watch your back: Tom Golisano wants to bring true Republican conservatism to the governor's mansion, and he's willing to spend Bloomberg-style to get there.