On the way to the White House? The rock star that emerged from the ruins of the plague

Precisely out of ruins, leaders sometimes emerge and emerge. In these days of a plague that is raging in many parts of the world, local leaders are required to show leadership skills that, on ordinary days, are sometimes hidden from the public eye. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state has become the U.S. corona’s main carnage field, has become such a leader.

It has already become a familiar routine in the United States: two press conferences attract the public eye (and the media) daily – that of U.S. President Donald Trump and that of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. The first, whether intentionally or not, wages fights with the media, and the second wins her sympathy. And no, this is not about populism as would be expected of politicians who get valuable screen time. While for a long time, when the Corona made the inevitable route from the Far East and Europe to the US, President Trump acted as if the virus was merely a disruptive mosquito. How big was the denial? He even refused to call her by name and called it the “Chinese virus” or “The virus from Wahan.” As if ignoring the name or the plague would reduce it or make it reality.

Two days after Cuomo declared a state of emergency in New York on March 7, when 89 verified nationals were counted, President Trump tweeted on Twitter: “Then last year, 37,000 Americans died of normal flu. It ranged from 27,000 to 70,000 a year. Nothing closes, life and the economy go on. Right now we have 546 corona cases and 22 dead. Think about it! ”

On the other hand, at the press conferences held by Cuomo, a man from the first moment seems to take full responsibility for what is happening within his country, hurts the deaths of the residents, honestly answers the journalists’ questions, controls the material, and also correctly dispels Hollywood clichés that America loves so much (“This is America at its best” , For example, about volunteers who came to help in New York). Cuomo’s popularity, whose three terms as governor since 2010 was primarily an example of esteemed technocracies, has led many to wonder whether they are watching a “live broadcast” in the rise of a new Democratic leader in the U.S. A leader who can defeat President Trump at the polls in the presidential election.

“Trump is not king, but president”

With Trump and Cuomo’s presence filling the television screens, newspaper gates and websites, it’s hard to understand why they look like two sides of the same coin – the US. In recent years, America has become accustomed to the president’s prickly tongue in interviews or on his favorite platform, Twitter, To governors or representatives he does not like, do not appreciate or even dare to “challenge” his function or actions, Cuomo acts differently.He is careful in the dignity of the president, but is not afraid to send arrows at him.

Surprisingly, perhaps, while the comparison between the two can pose a particular threat to President Trump, who is known for beheading people who develop their own opinions (which is contrary to his own position), the two have a very correct relationship. Cuomo does not hesitate to praise Trump, his deputy Mike Pence and others for good things they do, in his opinion, but also to criticize them sharply when he feels the administration is not doing enough.

“The federal government is our partner, of course,” Cuomo said in response to a question at a press conference. “I talked to the president again about the situation, I talked to the vice president. I talked to Jared Kushner. The White House is very helpful.”

By contrast, after last week Trump declared: “The president is the one who decides. Governors can’t do anything without the president’s approval” – in other words, he has total authority over all US states – it was Cuomo who “volunteered” to remind Trump that The United States was founded, among other things, on the basis of opposition to the monarchy and solid foundations of a federation of states with internal authority in their conduct.

“There was such an argument. It was made many years ago by people named Hamilton and Madison and Jefferson and Washington,” Cuomo replied sarcastically when asked in a CNN interview about Trump’s remarks, “and they summed up this debate. He has the “US Constitution” … and he states that the federal government has no authority over the states. It sets the exact opposite of what the president said. What he says is that he is a king. We didn’t have “King Washington” and we don’t have “King Trump” but “President Trump.” And it’s important to remember that the colonies are the ones who created the presidential administration and not the other way around. ”

Responding to the interviewer’s question “What would he do if the president orders him to” reopen “New York on a certain date,” Cuomo fired back unabashedly: “If Trump instructs me to do something that jeopardizes the health of New Yorkers, I won’t and we will be challenged here The worst thing he can do at this moment is to dictatorial and such a party. I know he is in an election, I know politics is raging, I know it’s the red against the blue … so no when it comes For that – it’s red, blue and white. 10,000 people died in New York. The virus didn’t kill Democrats or Republicans. It killed Americans. ”

“Civil War” live

In this age, and even more so in the current crisis, news and news channels are also becoming a means of entertainment. And anyway, the American public is first and foremost addicted to the story – the more Hollywood and exciting, the better. Cuomo had a twist in the plot when his brother Chris, who was filing a regular program on CNN, turned out to be Corona. His sentimental reference to his brother’s contagion captured the hearts of Americans. “I’m scared of what could happen to my brother and I worry about him – like anyone who fears for humanity and everyone he loves,” Cuomo said at a news conference after announcing that his brother was infected.

The Cuomo brothers recorded several televised comic moments – which have already become viral on social networks – in interviews over the past month and a half since the New York plague broke out. Like two high schoolers, they call each other derisive pronouncements on television, laughing at each other’s clothes and dropping each other on the outside mirror. Exciting moments were also recorded: “I know you like running around town with a suit that doesn’t fit your size,” Young Cuomo told his brother’s brother, “but I want you to remember that you must stay healthy. I need my big brother to stay healthy because I love you and you’re the center of Our family, but you’re also the center of the New York family now. ”

“Yes, but I have to do my job,” the governor replied, “and my mother did not raise me to be a general who commands from the armchair and gives instructions from his basement. As I tell the National Guard soldiers daily, ‘I will not ask you to do or be somewhere that I am not “So, I have to continue to function the way I function,” he said, adding with a wink to his broadcasting brother: “You will continue to sit in the basement. I think it is very nice. I love you. Be healthy. You will call occasionally.”

On other occasions, the two entertained viewers with an argument about their status at home. Among other things, Chris claimed to be the beloved son, because his Italian mother exclusively bequeathed him the recipe for the spaghetti sauce and her famous patties that “only he can continue to carry the legacy”. Governor Cuomo did not remain indebted and fired his own missile: “You have always been good at manipulating and you have always been the meatball of the family. Anyway, some of us have to go to work, right? I don’t have the privilege of working one hour a day like you.”

After becoming the man of the hour, the one who delivers comfort, empathy, credibility, destiny, partnership and also broadcasts seriousness and confidence on television, it was only natural to speculate on Cuomo’s political future. Last year, he announced he would run for another term as governor of New York, but now hot talk in American politics is that Cuomo’s goal has become much bigger – the White House. This is unprovoked. Especially when you consider that after the charismatic Bernie Sanders retirement, the Democratic Party remains with Joe Biden, a gray man who failed to take advantage of the last few weeks to offer more responsible leadership to Americans every evening at Trump’s chaotic press conferences, which became a rallying show.

In the meantime, Cuomo stubbornly rejects these speculations as they rise. In an interview with his brother Chris

On CNN, the governor answered with one word – “no” – to any questions about running for president, present or future.

Either way, if he does intend to run for the world’s top political office, it would be unwise to declare this in an unprecedented crisis. In an instant, he will become a sympathetic figure for a politician trying to “cynically” check his behavior. Evaluation words will soon become a venomous half-criticism.

Marriage to the Kennedy family

Andrew Mark Cuomo was born in late 1957. He is the oldest of the five family children who lived in Hollis, Queens, a middle-class neighborhood where his grandparents who immigrated from Italy settled. After graduating from Archbishop Molloy’s religious high school in 1975, he attended Fordham Jesuit University in New York, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in 1979. He went on to attend Albany Law School, where he earned a Ph.D. after a few years.

In his early 20s, Andrew served as his father’s campaign manager for the governor’s office in New York. Mario Cuomo won the election in 1982, and Andrew first headed his father’s “transition” team. Thereafter, he served as a senior advisor for $ 1 a year. In his role, he was responsible, among other things, for building shelters for homeless people in the country. He began serving as a Manhattan District Attorney in 1984, before becoming a partner in the law firm of Blutrich, Falcone and Miller. In 1986, he returned to public service and established the State Housing Enterprise for the Poor (HELP).

In the early 1990s, he married a scion of the American political nobility, Kerry Kennedy, the seventh daughter of Robert (Bobby) Kennedy, brother of the late president, who was himself murdered in 1968. The marriage lasted 15 years, until 2005, and eventually provided a great deal of material for the gossip columns in the local press. Already that year, he began to have another long-distance relationship with food guru and TV presenter Sandra Lee. This relationship also lasted for about 15 years, until last year the two broke up.

In 1993, Cuomo became Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) of the U.S. government, under President Bill Clinton. Four years later, when he was only 40, Cuomo was appointed Minister of Housing and Urban Development – a position he held until 2001.

With a polished record and a pretty bright future at 44, Cuomo ran for the first time in New York in 2002. He retired from the race after a statement that was considered problematic in American political-correction discourse when he criticized the role of then-New York governor George Patkey in the September 11 terrorist attack. Then he chose to disappear from the public eye for a few years and reappeared in 2006 in the race for the New York Attorney General’s office. Unlike Israel, the role is not merely a political or professional appointment, but a role for which local elections are held and is considered no less political than a professional and in some cases, also a leap for the role of state governor.

As a prosecutor, he made a name for himself as a corruption fighter. After the untimely retirement of New York Governor Elliott Spitzer, who turned out to be a whore lover, Cuomo decided to run for office again. The future looks bright again and Cuomo was elected governor of New York this time. He entered the office on January 1, 2011 and has been there ever since.

“Talking like a car mechanic”

Managing a U.S. state, certainly one that has about 20 million people, is no easy task, but the role of a U.S. state governor is considered low in the internal hierarchy, beneath members of Congress and the Senate. Most often, and despite the complex ministerial role they play, governors and governors are not recognized across the state and certainly do not receive coastal media exposure. Unless, of course, they’re involved in some kind of sex scandal or just some scandal.

Therefore, despite New York State’s high profile, live broadcasts of Cuomo’s daily press conferences, along with interviews, reports of his conduct and profile articles around the world, are considered very rare in American politics. In all, Cuomo speaks at eye level and language Simple.

“He enjoys an understanding of how the media works, that no other public is currently elected,” political consultant Rebecca Katz recently told Rolling Stone Magazine. Katz, who has represented politicians who have faced or been in conflict with him in recent years, explains how this has also been reflected in a public relations wizard such as the current US president. “Trump understands why it’s important to be on TV,” she says, “but Cuomo understands how to tell people what’s really going on in a way that is both sober and soothing.”

In this regard, Andrew Cuomo is very different from his father Mario who served as governor of New York for three terms. Cuomo Sr., who at the time was regarded as an intellectual politician, on whose bookshelf, philosopher Aristotle, alongside emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius, was also considered one of the most eloquent and brilliant political speakers of his time. At least in this regard, the apple fell far from the tree. “Unlike his father, Andrew does not formulate eloquent ideas, talks about ideals or conveys visions,” a 10-year-old New York Times profile article says, “Cuomo is more like a mechanic lifting his head from your stuck car engine, and telling you what is not OK on the engine and how it will fix it. ” Ultimately, the article states, Cuomo “prefers short sentences and unimaginative facts.”

Make no mistake: This does not mean that Andrew Cuomo is not smart or falls from his father in his intelligence. It could very well be an informed choice not to speak out loud in an era when the wind is so low in the US.

Left, Right, Left … Center

Left-wing Democrats are criticizing Cuomo as a center man, but despite his positions, he is behind quite a few liberal laws

Unlike the brightly colored left-wing figures like Alexandria Oxio-Cortez, Cuomo has always been considered the Democratic Party for a center man who adopted “Clintonism.” That is, instead of taking explicitly liberal left-wing positions, his critics claim, he chose positions that are more reminiscent of the “third way” approach, which became very popular in the 1990s by former heads of state such as former US President Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former German Prime Minister Gerhard Schroeder and others.

Moreover, although the New York general address is remembered as a “corruption fighter” who also brought about changes in the pension sector, the criticism to his left is that his administration is deeply tainted with corruption and discriminatory treatment of New York “corporate”, and that his election and general agenda has been overly inclined Center and right. Thus, he lowered the corporate income tax in order to “increase employment”. A move that, as expected, was criticized by the left wing of the Democratic Party.

“The Democratic Party has spent the last two decades moving away from the New Deal values ​​and refusing to stand unchallenged alongside the working people. Governor Cuomo embodies this move to the center,” Monica Klein, a strategist for the Progressive Democrats in New York, told the British Guardian recently.

She added that instead of “raising taxes for the wealthy and the New York-based strata, Cuomo led New York as a democratic corporation to cut hospitals, public schools and affordable housing.”

However, thanks to Cuomo’s managerial view and the relationships he maintains, he has been able to pass clear progressive liberal-liberal laws including the marriage equality law to the LGBT community, already in his first year in office, with consensus with the Republican axis – only two years after lawmakers in this state , Which Democrats have ruled, rejected this law; tightened state gun laws, not simply fighting one of the strongest lobbying organizations working against them; completely eliminating public college tuition for families with less than $ 125,000 a year; Shale drilling in the state, raising the minimum wage in New York City Over the past few years, it has averaged about $ 13.5 today – almost double the US federal salary of $ 7.5 (on December 31, 2021, the New York minimum wage will rise to $ 15). He also passed a law for the legalization of medical marijuana in 2014 – a controversial law that has been stuck in the political pipelines for a long time.

Certainly, for better or worse, Cuomo is part of the democratic establishment. Being the father of a party politician, his marriage to a Kennedy family, the United States nobility, and of course the official positions he held in the Clinton administration – these are all enough to give very good starting points to anyone who wants to advance in American politics. But being a part of this “establishment” is also a major drawback in the days when people like the progressive Alexandria Oxio-Cortez congressman or the socialist charisma Bernie Sanders are gaining high popularity. The establishment is often regarded as rightfully too, when too conservative, too cowardly, too compromising and worst of all – connected to capital. To the Millennials, people of Cuomo’s kind are certainly infected with some kind of corruption and the connection or similarity between people “sorted out” like them is just getting further away.

5 leadership values ​​that can be learned from Cuomo

Transparency, reliability and responsibility – That’s what we want to see, says Lawrence Parnell, a professor of strategic relations at George Washington University. Cuomo’s style is very personal and reliable. He admits when he doesn’t know something, he takes responsibility. People outside New York are also watching his briefings to know what’s going on.

Area General – That’s what America needs now, says Debin Temin, director of crisis management agency Temin & Co. Cuomo may not be the perfect general for peace, but he is exactly what we need in wartime. His sleeves are rolled up, he personally tries to get respirators, and the public gets the impression that he is completely involved.

Makes people believe he is in the same boat with them – Says Eric Bernstein, president of Crisis Management and Crisis Management. Cuomo understands what people are going through. He provides the information, scary as it may be, and he does a great job of making us feel that he is not saying anything excessive, without empty promises.

You could combine the personal side – Cuomo is not a fascinating TV person, says Chris Elieri, founder and director of media consulting firm Mulberry & Astor. He also does not speak from his stomach and birth. What happens here is his personal story – the fact that his brother on CNN, whose father was a popular governor, is very well known in New York state. In real-time, such briefings are considered a reliable source of information.

clarity “He sends a simple message that is powerful,” says Peter Cappelli, professor of business at the Wharton Business School.