Presumably in reference to my insistence that Chris Christie, Sarah Palin, and others ran and lost in this cycle, Chris G asks: "Did Mario Cuomo run for president in 1992"?
That one's mostly easy: yes, I suppose so. Well, check that; we can use Josh Pullman's formulation here: Cuomo had been running for 1992, but certainly didn't run in 1992.
I don't actually remember what specific, concrete steps Cuomo made before ultimately not entering primaries and caucuses, but if he consulted with staff and prospective staff, talked to important party actors, gave speeches about what he would have done as president, and otherwise did the sorts of things that candidates do, then yes, I'd say during that period he was a candidate.
I have mob ties!
ReplyDeleteactually, no one ran in 1992...
http://snltranscripts.jt.org/91/91edebate.phtml
(no clips, unfortunately. snl sure has a bitchy stranglehold on its legacy.)
Hulu might have it or something resembling.
ReplyDeleteI suspect Cuomo thought that Bush--still buoyed by post-Desert Storm poll numbers--was going to be a lot less vulnerable than he turned out to be, and ultimately sat out on that basis. More like Huckabee this year, though that there was never to be another chance for Cuomo is surely a cautionary tale for those who chose to sit out this year's Republican contest. But I don't think we are counting Huck as one who ran and lost, so we probably shouldn't put Cuomo in that column either.
Oh he sniffed a run out... but the Hamlet of the Hudson was fearful of gettin' Dukakised. And he likely would have been, had he run. Remember, Clinton was the "New Democrat", and that same zeitgeist even spilled over across the pond to "New Labour", don't forget. It was a powerful influence and presence and movement. Cuomo was anything but "new". He was a machine hack whose words pursed nicely, until such time as he had to cross the state line to deliver them, whereupon those words always got unpursed for his trouble, rudely and rapidly.
ReplyDeleteNo hardcore lefty was going to be given the keys to the nuke shed in 1992, even post Berlin Wall falling. It remains a minor miracle that Obama was handed them, and as proof of that, I give you the Kerry disaster... just 4 years earlier. No, Clinton was likely the only D that could have won in 1992. Bradley, no way. Even Gore was posturing conservative in that era, and you know that chameleon knew the score.