GAMES AND GAMES... The big event of the last week leads one to ponder the meaning of being a Democratic political leader in Cleveland. No, I don't mean the convention. I mean the International Children's Games.

For the past eight months Jane Campbell has invested a lot of her resources -- and the City's -- to make the Games look good. She personally took on a large share of the fundraising responsibility. She had Cabinet members spending half their time overseeing the details of security and technology. They called in every imaginable favor to get business resources and volunteers. Some City utility employees worked full-time on the Games for months. (Disclosure: I was part of the committee for the "Cyber Scene" game area -- at a Cabinet member's request -- and I met some very nice people doing it.)

Campbell did all this while other Democratic leaders and footsoldiers, in Cleveland and throughout the country, were obsessing about nothing but the national election. As her reward, she got to wake up Saturday morning to see George Bush's smiling face on page 1 of Alex Machaskee's newspaper, opening her Games (and Machaskee's) in the biggest media market of the nation's most crucial swing state, on the day the Bush campaign most wanted him there to distract voters from Kerry's big convention moment.

How do you think the Kerry campaign liked that?

I've written before that Campbell's best chance for re-election is to play a recognized role (like helping create a massive Cleveland turnout) in a Kerry victory in Ohio that puts him in the White House.

If I'm right, the Mayor appears to have some serious ground to make up in the next three months. Far from helping, the Children's Games -- and the grownup political gamesmanship around them -- probably cost her a few steps.

Of course, what's really important is that the kids had fun. But I hope the Mayor had fun, too, because she paid for it.