It's impressive to see some comparasations between McCluskey and Vito. Both helped other people. We all know how Vito helped people, but McCluskey did also. He helped his study-mates, he helped the sister of his wife in Ireland with the dissease and funeral, he helped the Tattaglia family with their Club. He helped his aunts/uncles with their crisp-fields (? Don't know the word) He earned some respect from several people.
He only hadn't a whole crew beneath him. But maybe he could have been a good mobsters too!
There are several ways in which Puzo tries to draw equivalences between mob life and the "respectable" world. There's Michael telling Kay that all the Presidents had shady characters in their family historiees, and several times Michael as a mobster makes use of or reference to his military experience. My favorite equivalence concerns the Senator on Vito's payroll: "The Senator, like Luca Brasi, was one of the great stones in the Don's power structure, and he too, with this gift, had resworn his loyalty."
