• Transcript of live broadcast yesterday
I’m learning that Andrew Cuomo’s the victim of an opponent who ran the race on character assassinations and character assassinations were a popular rage across the board in this campaign. But particularly for one who is one of the most gregarious of a lot of New Yorkers, like the governor, who will do whatever he can to be seen as a nice guy.
So he is the victim of a savage campaign run against him, including a friend of mine and a brother of mine, a friend of mine, David Paterson, who I served with in Iraq, who ran a candidate who tried to use Andrew’s war service against him and run an extraordinary savage campaign against him that I came to the conclusion didn’t have any substance but it had nothing to do with Andrew’s judgment.
I’m curious what the impetus was for running against this governor. What caused you to decide that Cuomo was the way to go?
He’s the gubernatorial candidate. And the governor of the state that has historically been seen as one of the most progressive states in the country, a state that had never had a governor elected who was opposed by my entire party, without exception.
There is a history of questions about his judgement and his thoughts and his policy positions. They’re the most left-wing of the party. But Cuomo’s just seemed to completely absorb the opposition’s arguments and come back with something that many people in New York thought was a striking repudiation of them. There was more of an outpouring for him than anyone ever in the history of state government in New York. And I suspect this has had a profound psychological effect on him.
Some people have suggested, in fact, he knows that the Democrat has become the Republican in this state, and that the party has become some reactionary place.
I think that he’s a pretty smart guy. And I think he’s very proud of his record. I think the most daring thing that he’s done is to run a statewide campaign of education reform. And I think that people thought it was bold. I think it was bold because of Andrew’s character. I think it was bold because of his belief that his party needed to be much more inclusive than the party he had grown up in and an emerging party in New York.