Sorry to hear of Mario Cuomos passing. A number of people tonight have posted his speech at the 1984 Democratic Convention in San Francisco, but the one I remember is his speech to the US Conference of Mayors in Hyannis in August of 1991. Ray Flynn was USCM President at the time and was hosting the annual summer leadership retreat. Mayor Flynn was a huge admirer of Gov. Cuomo and reached out to him to keynote the meeting. His speech was brilliant, covering the range of domestic issues. I still have the tape of it. A year later, Cuomo would join Mayor Flynn and other national leaders at the Save Our Cities march in Washington (a City Councilor from Hyde Park at the time who was a big Cuomo fan also participated in the march). Heres an excerpt from Curtis Wilkies coverage of the Hyannis meeting for the Globe: HYANNIS -- Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York told an influential group of mayors yesterday that it is imperative for the nation to change its course, but he repeatedly resisted all suggestions that he lead the charge as a Democratic presidential candidate. In an extraordinary appearance in which he talked practically nonstop for more than two hours, lamenting Washingtons failure to deal with national problems and handling questions about his own ambitions, Cuomo displayed the colorful style that makes him one of the most dynamic figures in the Democratic Party. He alternated between grim assessments of the state of the union and humorous asides in which he used flights of Italian words, cited Greek mythology and told how former President Reagan once confused him with Lee Iacocca. But when Mayor Flynn, president of the US Conference of Mayors, asked Cuomo what role he is willing to play to change the direction in which Republican administrations have taken the country, the New York governor replied, Ill do anything you want me to do -- as governor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ And yes, there was that write-in campaign for Cuomo up in New Hampshire, and some of Flynns staff sort of headed to Manchester to check it out, but those details are kind of sketchy :). So are the details of the subsequent relationship between Flynns successor and a former HUD official related to the Governor. But the bottom line is this, when Mario Cuomo spoke, he made Democrats be proud to be Democrats. We needed it then, we need it today. RIP, Governor.
Posted on: Fri, 02 Jan 2015 02:25:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015