Cuomo is going nowhere
The Andrew Cuomo paradox is annoying, but inevitable given who he is.
Of course a vast majority of us in New York want him to just go away. His time has blessedly passed. Yet here we are writing about him, weighing his chances at a comeback and what that might be, and generally giving him far, far more attention than we know he deserves.
Worst of all, that’s just what he wants. Back in August, on the heels of Cuomo’s resignation as governor, his spokesman Rich Azzopardi stated Cuomo had “no intention of running again,” but “it’s fascinating to know how much real estate we’re still taking up in people’s heads.” As I said, really annoying.
So what is the mysterious dark prince up to? Speculation of course, but Cuomo’s not all that complicated when you realize he’s a hard-core addict. He is and always has been addicted to politics and being the man in charge and while he has “many options” as he mentioned a few days ago, the only one that really counts for him is to get back in the game at the same level he left it and with all the speculation about his future he enjoyed before his staggering fall. He wants to be governor again, with people talking about him as presidential material. How realistic is that? Not the point.
So his recent “mergence” into the public eye is not to rehabilitate his image. That just doesn’t make sense. If he were serious about rehabilitation he would have taken an entirely different path forward, following the well traveled mea culpa route, begging for forgiveness. All the stuff his fans wanted him to do, which he conspicuously and rather arrogantly avoided.
The problem with that plan is it takes time and lots of baby steps or it won’t work, and even then doesn’t necessarily get him what he wants. Time is an issue for Cuomo. He’s 64. Realistically, he has a decade and maybe a little more. From the cesspool he’s in now, any meaningful ascendancy has to happen reasonably quickly and that’s not going to happen by a passive strategy. Besides, baby steps and admitting error doesn’t suit his narcissistic ego. He would always be one vicious, cutting remark to a critic from being back in the cesspool. Rehabilitation only works when you can walk the walk.
So instead he’s spending his campaign funds on an ad, and more to come, that looks like it belongs to some nut-job right winger from Trumpland, with half-truths, conspiracies and distortions. Easily refuted stuff. Cuomo’s aim can’t possibly be to turn the minds of the majority of New York voters, since he has already lost big time in the court of public opinion over what he’s peddling in the ad. What his object might be is far more modest, to push his own narrative while discrediting Attorney Gen
eral Letitia James. Get himself talked about, written about. Build up his base by hammering untruths over and over. Declare his own relevancy. It worked for Trump. Recent polling suggests he is making modest inroads.
However, what Cuomo wants, what his plans really are, probably don’t matter. There is a second Cuomo paradox.
If his worst enemy could have created a perfect hell on earth for Cuomo right now, he could not have done a better job than what Cuomo has created for himself.
He is disgraced, his entire life’s work and reputation is in the toilet. Even his father’s legacy has been tainted by association. Every move he makes to get back in the game like the dumb TV ad he’s produced makes him look increasingly, in the word of AG James, pathetic. He has few supporters willing to acknowledge him, no clamor for his return as a “proven leader.” The only job he wants is the one he likely can’t have.
For a politician whose trademark has been controlling his fate and micromanaging those around him, he is now entirely buffeted by forces that can destroy him and over which he has no control. In spite of his idiotic proclamations of having been exonerated of sexual harassment charges because criminal charges have all been dropped, he still faces a potential barrage of civil suits with a much lower bar of proof. He is one declaratory judgment by a federal judge away from having his so called exoneration disappear, and his losing any hope of a comeback.
He has $16 million left in his campaign account but no campaign to spend it on. If he mounts a campaign now it is too soon, he would likely lose big time and the money would be gone. If he waits, he would be almost 70 when the next chance comes around, and who knows what four years does for public taste.
Last Sunday, after he spoke publicly for the first time since his resignation at a Brooklyn church, he was asked about his plans. “Oh, I’m not going anywhere,” he said with his trademark scowl. A promise, or a threat, take your pick. Or a pretty cogent analysis of his political future.