Watching Cuomo's plane on the Albany tarmac in Dec 1991...
Back then CNN had it as breaking news. It is one of my saddest political memories and disappointments. Right up there with the rainy night in Nashville in November 2000 when Al Gore couldn't declare victory.
Mario Cuomo was the candidate who most spoke to what I believed and what was in my heart. Watching his 1984 speech now, it seems as powerful today.
No lesser of two evils stuff. I was heartbroken when that plane stayed put.
A few months later I would be peddling "Putting People First" and thinking Bill Clinton was telling me exactly what I wanted to hear. Looking back, I cringe at my ignorance at the time about the DLC and the "New" Democrat types. I cringe at and mourn the ascendancy of Wall Street and the banks free of Glass-Steagall. And even I recall rooting for Gore in his debate with Perot over NAFTA, oblivious that it was Perot who told the truth.
Now I look back at that stuck plane so many years ago with a lot of sorrow today. No longer do we have Ted Kennedy asking when the greed will end. And with the passing of Mario Cuomo, I mourn someone who could express what we traditional liberal, New-Deal democrats
believe, like no Democrat today ever has.
I'm tired of the lesser of evils. I can understand everyone who hopes Senator Warren's "plane takes off for New Hampshire." I recall the hoping and yearning for that plane. And today hurts as I think of what might have been...
