Andrew Cuomo wants to be president, bad. But he knows Hillary’s got the nomination locked up for 2016. So he’s spending his time now accumulating power so he can remake the state into an economically revitalized — but centrist, anti-public employee union and corporation-friendly — “New York Miracle” to run on in either 2020 (if Hillary loses or has a very bad first term) or 2024 (when Hillary’s second term would be up). It’s a long game, yes, but Andrew’s not that old, really, and this is the best path for him.
But his path, by no means a certain one, could become quite rocky if he doesn’t win a third term as governor in 2018. Enter Chris Gibson, who out of the gate is a more attractive gubernatorial alternative than Rob Astorino proved to be last year. Now, demographics and enrollment are decidedly and perhaps fatally against any Republican running for a statewide office, but Gibson’s cause could be strengthened if the ethics scandal gets much larger or much closer to Cuomo. (It’s already pretty close as it is, and the more Preet Bharara digs up, the worse Cuomo’s pulling the plug on the Moreland Commission looks.) Gibson’s cause would be even further strengthened if Cuomo himself is charged or convicted. I have zero insider knowledge of what’s going on with this, but it seems not much a stretch at all to interpret Bharara’s advice to us all to “stay tuned” for more as an implication that an even bigger fish than Silver is on his line. We shall see.
Hey, Dan, who do you think is going to win the Super Bowl? Why, I’m looking for Seattle to repeat, actually. This Giants fan knows defense wins championships, after all, and Seattle’s got the best in the league.
Kudos on the editorial, Dan. And hey, they were only off by 100 miles or so – as one TV weatherman said, “Just a blip on a weathermap.” Of course, that “blip” has millions of people within it, but heck, weather forecasting isn’t as exact a science as many would like to believe. (On the other hand, to hear Rush Limbaugh go on about it, the erroneous forecast was a liberal conspiracy. Really – you can’t make this stuff up! But he can….)
Regarding your postscript, I bet Governor Cuomo was grateful to have something else pushing Sheldon Silver off the front pages!
I think it is refreshing that in light of yesterday’s snow which had no PR and at least seemed to deposit more white stuff than the earliet well/hyped storm, arrived through the morning, got dealt with efficiently – streets were bare, most walkways clear – and business went on as usual, Kingston’s Public Works department declared a snow emergency that would begin at 2 p.m. and end at 11 p.m. Leaves me asking: Why the emergency when all seemed well cleared? Did the City make a killing with snow-emergency tickets?