Fearing terrorism and other disasters, droves of Manhattanites fled the city in advance of the Republican National Convention, hunkering down in such havens as Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons. The secretary of homeland security, Tom Ridge, told Americans that intelligence indicated Al Qaeda was determined to attack during the summer to disrupt America’s election process – and he designated the convention a national special security event.

That the convention went off without a hitch is a credit to the cooperative efforts of the mayor’s office, the New York Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service, and the convention organizers. Coordinating security for such a big event – and target – is no easy task, involving not only logistical nightmares but the customary turf wars and fights over competing jurisdictions. Mayor Bloomberg has been living in the shadow of Mayor Giuliani this week, but his management of the city through the protests and the threat of terrorism distinguish him as an able leader as well.

Visitors to New York, whatever their party, now have a different view of “the ungovernable city,” and it’s one that can only inspire confidence in New York’s bid to host the Olympic Games here in 2012. What the delegates and dissenters have seen is a city that – under successive Republican administrations, we might add – has earned its designation as the capital of the world.