In a scene so surreal that it could have been in a movie, Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker can now add "life saver" to an extensive resume that already includes "Rhodes Scholar" and "star of "Brick City." Booker arrived home last night to discover his next-door neighbor's house on fire, and rescued a young woman trapped upstairs by carrying her through the flames, suffering second-degree burns in the process.

Booker said that as he jumped through the kitchen on the second floor, "I actually wasn't thinking. When I got there and couldn't find her in all the smoke, looked behind me and saw the kitchen really erupting with flames all over the ceiling, that's when I had very clear thoughts that I'm not going to get out of this place alive and got … very religious.

"It is a very, very scary thing. And I'd like to say that I, at that point I was feeling so courageous, but honestly, it was terrifying, and to look back, you can see nothing but flames. Look in front of you see nothing but blackness.

"Thankfully she started yelling out to me and I was able to find her through all the smoke. At that point I grabbed her."

Terms such as "bravery" and "courage" and "hero" get tossed around so often that they lose a bit of their resonance, but Booker's act (and track record) proves that he's definitely worthy of those words.