NYTimes: "Mr. Cuomo burst beyond the state’s boundaries to personify the liberal wing of his national party and become a source of unending fascination and, ultimately, frustration for Democrats, whose leaders twice pressed him to run for president, in 1988 and 1992, to no avail."
"In the end, two images of Mr. Cuomo endure. The first is of him, as governor, commanding the lectern at the 1984 Democratic convention, stilling a sea of delegates with his oratory. The second is of two chartered airplanes on the tarmac at the Albany airport in December 1992, waiting to fly him to New Hampshire to pay the $1,000 filing fee that would put his name on the state's Democratic primary ballot for president."
RIP. People say Obama is a master speechmaker, but a lot of them are too young to remember what a master speaker really is. He was probably right about a national candidacy for himself. Turning down the Supreme Court job was regrettable, both for the country and his reputation.
Best ever: Eugene McCarthy nominating Stevenson in 1960. If that McCarthy had shown up in '68, he'd have beaten RFK like a drum.
Posted by: Hypatia | January 07, 2015 at 02:04 PM
I never really thought Pres. Obama was that great an orator. I was present at the 2004 DNC when he supposedly gave his great, memorable speech. I thought it was a snoozer.
Posted by: John Petty | January 12, 2015 at 02:19 PM
Well, I was being polite. I am actually disposed to agree with you. Obama is very good by contemporary American standards, but he could never do what Clinton did for him at the last convention, much less what Cuomo did. (I don't know how Paul Ryan appears in public without a bag over his head after his evisceration by the Big Dog, but, hey, he's a pol.)
Posted by: Hypatia | January 14, 2015 at 05:33 PM