Several days into his mayoralty, Eric Adams is already attracting attention. It is the peachiest of times to be a politician, when all is new and expectations have yet to be dashed. The people who are yoked to the process  — the journalists, pundits, donors, operatives, lobbyists, and even the voters — are excited for the potential of it all, a future that can, in theory, be anything. The outer boroughs will be forgotten no longer! Crime will be tamed! Small businesses will be heard! The mayor bikes to work and even rides the subway. He must be on to something.

So far, the usually cynical New York City press corps, so used to beating the political carcass of Bill de Blasio for eight long years, is quite enraptured. Casual lies are no longer bemoaned. Questions have their edges shaved off. “Mr. Mayor, why do you think it’s so important to have this press conference today . . . ?” And Adams, with the salesman’s smile, like a character out of Tom Wolfe’s fiction, begins to answer.

None of this will likely last. Adams is serene now, but no mayor of New York remains that way, no matter how much they might meditate. Adams, who has a penchant for incendiary statements, may find his fuse running shorter in the coming weeks and months. Crises beyond the pandemic will emerge. The media will grow less friendly. Voters will become more demanding.