The Democratic former governor of New York has died at the age of 82.
I remember him best for his powerful keynote speech to the 1984 Democratic National Convention, which nominated Walter Mondale to run against President Ronald Reagan.
I wasn’t the only one who wished that it was Cuomo, rather than Mondale, running against Reagan. Even if he had lost (which he probably would have), it would have made for a more interesting contest, and prevented Reagan from getting away with as much as he did.
Although there was much talk of Cuomo running for president in 1988 and 1992, he could not (for whatever reason) bring himself to do so.
Notice how much of what he said in his “Tale of Two Cities” speech is just as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. The main difference is that Republicans today would accuse him of engaging in “class warfare,” a phrase they had barely discovered in 1984.
