tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9195674.post111499686660834563..comments2024-03-28T07:18:58.603-07:00Comments on All This Is That: The Man Who Should Have Been King: Governor Mario CuomoKeekee Brummethttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01842767297002028344noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9195674.post-1115090036131030972005-05-02T20:13:00.000-07:002005-05-02T20:13:00.000-07:00You know, Kevin, I remember that day too. . .the p...You know, Kevin, I remember that day too. . .the plane waiting. It was even more exciting than that moment when McCarthy beat LBJ and we all waited to see "Will Bobby run?" And when he decided to make a go of it--of course, all hell broke loose. LBJ threw in the towel. And Nixon had to be in agony, to be facing the next Kennedy in line.<BR/><BR/>But back to the speech: it didn't actually bring me to tears, but it moved me deeply. Not only because of the political message, but because of the cadences. Mario was a poet in the best sense of the word, and whether it was a thin skin. . .or whatever it was, we lost something when he pulled back.<BR/><BR/>Bill Clinton, on the other hand, brought something else to the table. Slick Willy was an extremely intelligent man, like Mario, but he also had that certain something that Mario probably never have mustered. You could always picture giving Bill a hug. With Mario it would have been a warm handshake. <BR/><BR/>With Mario, you did feel the enormous depth of his compassion and his deep empathy. . .like you did with Bobby. With Bobby, it was a fragile and palpable hurt; with Mario it was compassion tinged with a stentorian rage...which was what made him so magnificent.<BR/><BR/>Did I ever tell you that I used to listen to him on the radio in NY? I think he was on WBAI. He was a comparitive nobody, just about to run for mayor I think. He was so Mario, even then.<BR/><BR/>I have yet to read his recent book:<BR/>Why Lincoln Matters: Today More Than Ever. But I will soon. <BR/><BR/>More soon. /jackKeekee Brummethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01842767297002028344noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9195674.post-1115082347604021122005-05-02T18:05:00.000-07:002005-05-02T18:05:00.000-07:00And more on Mario, again from Kevin Curran, when I...And more on Mario, again from Kevin Curran, when I wrote him back about his first email. Kevin is the one other person I know who is as big a Mario fan, and we both always hoped that that plane would leave the tarmac! /jb<BR/>---------------------<BR/>from kevin curran email 5-2-05<BR/><BR/>Why didn't Mario run? I think now I agree with the Belluvian dogfish who asserts that Mario made a which way is the wind blowin' decision. He withdrew when he considered that the post Desert Storm frenzy surrounding GHWB made him a shoe-in two termer.. I think it's important to remember that Bill wouldn't have beaten George the elder had it not been for the Texarkana muskrat sucking 20 points in the general. I totally agree with you about Mario's thin skin. At that time most pundits thought it signaled his honesty when only a few years later they saw it as bellicose and bullying. I do remember that Mario did a fairly serious turn as a weekly radio host, national too, I think, for a while after losing office to Pataki. His ratings were quite poor though and he didn't last more than a few months, six at most. <BR/><BR/>And the basketball crack was really pointed and in response to some smart ass crack Quayle made about him. Oh, I was so hopeful that he would enter. I was returning to lower Manhattan about to enter the Brklyn Battery tunnel when WNYC gave notice of an important statement from Gov Cuomo whose plane had been staged on the tarmac all day long in anticipation of his flight to enter the race in the live free or die state. When I came out the otherside the dream was all over. I kew it in my guts even though I had to fiddle through a 1010 Wins news cycle before I learned for sure. DRAT.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9195674.post-1115081824171284962005-05-02T17:57:00.000-07:002005-05-02T17:57:00.000-07:00Jack Note: I had to post this comment Kevin email...Jack Note: I had to post this comment Kevin emailed me, because the basketball story was so good!<BR/>-----------<BR/>Jack, I wish I could locate a complete audio version of the speach. I still play, now and again, the excerpt you sent to me, was it 10 years ago? I remember breaking down in tears just reading the text version in the<BR/>NYTimes the morning after the keynote. I stop by your site regularly and was tempted to leave a comment about the halo tilted above FDR's holy noggin and then again to offer my 2bits on why the Gov's plane didn't leave the Albany tarmac in the runup to the 92 election. I do think Mario could have beaten Bill. No matter what we think of the Slickster's prowess now he probably would have trembled at least a little before the 800lb gorilla on the Hudson. Mario has been pretty well defanged since then but don't forget the press, especially the NY contingent, still adored him in the early 90's and he wasn't shy about hitting hard. I still love his smackdown of Dan Quayle back then. You may know that Mario played regularly in a Albany pol basketball league whenever he was in the Gov's mansion. He had a nasty reputation on the court and it's hard to imagine any local ref calling him for a foul back then. So he bloodied a lot of opponents. Anyway, I don't remember why Mario fired but he essentially called Quayle a golf sissy and said if he wanted to play a real game he should come to Albany any weeknight and suit up for an old fashioned scrim NY style.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com