If one wants to get a glimpse of the political space the mayor could fill in 2008, feature what happened yesterday, when he marched in the gay pride parade, along with a lot of other New Yorkers, including some wearing outlandish outfits. He carried a rainbow flag. He’s publicly stated his support for gay marriage, which is more than Senators Clinton or Obama have been willing to do. What did it win him from the parade’s two grand marshals? Condemnation, as our Erin Durkin reports at page one today. “Shame on you, Mr. Bloomberg,” said Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, the spiritual leader of a synagogue in Manhattan that serves gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender Jews. The parade’s other grand marshal, a Christian clergyman named Reverend Troy Perry who was imported from West Hollywood, Calif., for the occasion, was similarly negative about Mr. Bloomberg. “I think the mayor’s making a mistake if he’s going to run for president,” Reverend Perry said.

What the parade leaders were apparently upset about was that Mr. Bloomberg, like his predecessors Mayors Koch and Giuliani, joined the parade after it passed St. Patrick’s Cathedral, thus avoiding the possibility of being caught up in any spontaneous displays of disrespect as the parade passed the seat of the Archdiocese in New York of the Roman Catholic Church. That church considers homosexual acts to be “intrinsically disordered” and calls for homosexuals to practice chastity. It was an entirely understandable, decent, and prudent action by the mayor of a city with many deeply held views on this topic. The decision of the grand marshals to make an issue out of it and to attack a politician who is actually one of their strongest allies suggests the issue is only going to get more fraught as the political season gets underway. Mr. Bloomberg is going to be able to look into the cameras and state that he acted to show respect to both sides.