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With Democrat frontrunner and presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden battling a decades-old sexual-assault allegation and showing signs of cognitive decline, a new, more-vibrant voice has arisen that has many in the Party dreaming of a brokered convention. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has become the new fantasy man for Democrats who dream of finding the candidate who can unseat Donald Trump in November.
Cuomo, who has been front and center for weeks due to his nearly daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic to the citizens of New York, has been the Democrat with the most screen time as of late, even in the midst of the presidential election season. Many in the party have fallen in love with the idea that he could be the person who can beat Donald Trump in a general election.
Last week, cable news networks even preempted a speech by Biden to instead air one of Cuomo’s daily briefings. The networks would later show snippets of the Biden speech but, let’s face it, Biden sounds much better in edited form than live. Cuomo, on the other hand, seems to shine in the bright television lights.
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Long-time New York political operative James Larocca made an impassioned case for Cuomo in a Newsday op-ed published last Thursday. “If extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, and they do, then this is the time for the Democratic Party to nominate Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for president,” Larocca wrote.
“[Cuomo] is the only elected official in United States today who has fully demonstrated the leadership, toughness, management skill and humanity that meeting the coronavirus pandemic demands. To be crudely political — and practical — he is the only Democrat who can absolutely beat President Donald Trump in November.”
And Larocca is not the only one singing Cuomo’s praises. MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow has called Cuomo the “president of the coronavirus response.” Feminist writer Rebecca Fishbein entitled a recent piece “Help, I think I’m in love with Andrew Cuomo???” And New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd notes that Cuomo’s “dark zeal to muscle past people and obstacles to get his way” are just what America needs during this time of crisis.
“But now, the darker the zeal, the better, if it secures you a mask or a ventilator. Given the White House’s deathly delays and the president’s childish rants, America is yearning for a trustworthy parental figure — and a hammer,” Dowd wrote on Friday.
Trust me, Ms. Dowd, America does not yearn for a “trustworthy parental figure.” And we certainly do not yearn for “a hammer.” And the fact that you think so shows how extremely out of touch you are with everyday Americans.
True to his nature, President Trump seems unfazed by a possible Cuomo presidential run, even though he mused that Cuomo would make a more formidable opponent than Biden.
“If [Cuomo is] going to run that’s fine,” Trump told Fox News. “I wouldn’t mind running against Andrew. I’ve known Andrew for a long time. I wouldn’t mind that but I’ll be honest, I think he’d be a better candidate than Sleepy Joe.”
It’s all speculation, of course, and Cuomo has, thus far, insisted that he is not running. He recently told Dowd, “No. I know presidential politics. I was there in the White House with Clinton.I was there with Gore. No, I’m at peace with who I am and what I’m doing.”
In addition, Biden and Cuomo are longtime friends, if that means anything in presidential politics. Very early on — in January of 2019 — Cuomo endorsed Biden, saying that “Biden has the best case” to become president.
“I think Joe Biden has the best case because he brings the most of the secret ingredient you need to win for a Democrat, which is credibility,” Cuomo said at the time.
So, it’s not likely that Cuomo will stab Biden in the back at this late hour. Absent some massive and nationwide “draft Andrew Cuomo” campaign, it appears that the New York governor will be sitting out the 2020 presidential campaign.
But if 2020 has shown us anything so far, it’s that stranger things have happened.
Image: Pat Arnow / Wikimedia Commons
James Murphy is a freelance journalist who writes on a variety of subjects, with a primary focus on the ongoing anthropogenic climate-change hoax and cultural issues. He can be reached at [email protected]
