Saturday,
February 10,
US Ready to Elect Italian American
President?
The
ANNOTICO Report
The
Real Question is : Is US Ready to Elect Someone
"Connected" to Mafia?
And
since 84% of all Americans believe that ALL Italian Americans are
"connected" to the Mafia,
(that is directly or by relatives or friends), that seems
like a tough road to hoe.
Cuomo
was rumored to be unwilling to be "smeared" in considering a
presidential bid.
Geraldine
Ferraro in 1984 as a VP candidate with Mondale, was
plagued by unfair rumors about some of her husbands associates.
Rudy
Giuliani, with a strong reputation as a prosecutor, and a popular hero of 9/11, still
had to endure the Village Voice, digging deep
and revealed that Giuliani's father spent 16 months in Sing Sing
for robbing a milkman. It isn't clear whether or not Giuliani knew about his
father's crime, which happened before he was born. In the USA Network movie
version, Woods-as-Giuliani is shocked by the news about his father, and calls
Barrett, the editor, a "panty-sniffer."
Ready to elect Italian American?
The
Journal
Martinsburg
Journal -
John
McVey
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Everyone is asking if Americans are ready to elect a woman president or a black
president. I wonder if Americans are ready to elect a president whose name ends
in a vowel.
Remember Mario Cuomo? The very popular governor of
But he never sought the Democratic nomination. Why not? He probably could have
won the nomination. Well never know if he could
have been elected president. He would have gone up against Ronald Reagan or
George H. Bush.
Maybe Cuomo didnt want
to challenge such a popular president in Reagan, who had defeated incumbent
President Jimmy Carter in 1980 and annihilated Walter Mondale in 1984.
George H. Bush easily defeated Michael Dukakis in 1988, carried to victory at
least in part because of Reagans overwhelming popularity. If Reagan could
have run for a third term, I think he probably could have been elected.
By the way, the first Bush was the first sitting vice president to be elected
president since Martin Van Buren in 1833 and was only the fourth sitting vice
president to be elected president. In addition to Van Buren, John Adams and
Thomas Jefferson were the only other sitting vice presidents elected president.
When it came time for Bush to run for a second term, he was coming off the
resounding defeat of Saddam Hussein in the first
By the time the election rolled around in 1992, Bushs ratings had
plummeted to some of the lowest points ever recorded. He was perceived as not
being able to relate to ordinary folks. You might recall the grocery store
checkout fiasco where it seemed like Bush had never been to a grocery story
before.
Could Cuomo have beaten Bush in 1992? Maybe.
Running for his fourth consecutive term as governor of New York, Cuomo was
swept out of power and the national limelight in the 1994 Republican revolution
led by Newt Gingrich and his contract on ... I mean with America.
Also, 1994 saw the final nail in the coffin of the classic liberal wing of the
Democrat Party of which Cuomo was a member in good standing. By then, he was
out of step with mainstream
Did his Italian American heritage play any role in Cuomos decision not to
run for president? Did he feel that Americans were not ready at that time to
elect an Italian American president and he didnt
want to run and lose? It was the subject of political punditry at that time.
So, 14 years later, could Americans be ready to elect someone whose name ends
in a vowel like Rudy Giuliani?
Just by running for the nomination, the former
Are we ready to elect a Hillary or a Giuliani? How about a Garcia or Yamaguchi
or Kowalski? Or will we feel more comfortable with the Anglo-Saxon Edwards or
Scottish McCain?
Of course, Barack Obama
just blows this whole hypothesis all to heck.
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