Cuomo Still Thinks He's Running For President

Neo-liberal real estate magnate Mort Zuckerman has given Governor Andrew M. Cuomo space in his New York Daily News to wax hawkish about 9/11 today.

Here's some:

Security never comes from denial; security comes from recognizing reality and taking action.

We may have pulled our troops out of Iraq and be drawing them down in Afghanistan, but the war against global terrorism is far from over. It’s simply entered a new phase.

In his speech Wednesday night, President Obama outlined his strategy to destroy ISIS. This comes on the heels of successful U.S. air strikes in Somalia that killed Al Shabab’s top leader, a man who has targeted Westerners in East Africa and bragged about planning last year’s assault on a mall in Kenya.

In light of the new threats, American officials must also recommit ourselves to intelligence-sharing and coordination among federal, state and local authorities.

And we must recognize the growing unrest in the Middle East is not merely a regional problem. It’s ours, too.

I recently led a bipartisan delegation of New York leaders to Israel during the conflict with Hamas. I walked through Hamas attack tunnels that lead from Gaza into the heart of Israeli communities — sometimes directly into Israeli homes. The fact that Hamas diverted resources, which should have been used to build bomb shelters and schools, to create these tunnels reveals its true priorities.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other government officials made the point that their country’s fight is our fight, too. They’re right.

Our enemies do not distinguish between us. They are waging a war against democracies and the democratic principles of freedom of religion, freedom of expression and freedom of assembly — principles New York has proudly embodied for centuries.

After 9/11, Republicans and Democrats united to face our common threat. Political leaders of all stripes must come together once again. To honor the memory of those we lost, we must do everything in our power to protect New York and America from those who have attacked us before and those who would attack us again.

Let us note that Cuomo is using a George W. Bush frame here - "The terrorists hate us for our freedoms" - a frame that is of course jive.

Freedom of assembly and expression?

Does he mean like when the SWAT teams shut down the assemblies expressing their love of freedom at the Occupy camps?

He also fails to note how the U.S. keeps creating these "enemies" through policies that continually cause blowback.

In any case, let us also note that this Daily News piece is clearly Cuomo's attempt at establishing some foreign policy bona fides.

I can't remember his weighing in on foreign policy much in the past, but in the last two months, he's made the trip to Israel, now he's writing (or having someone ghost writing for him) Rudy Giulianiesque opinion pieces on terrorism in the papers of his neo-liberal pals.

Despite his humiliation on Tuesday, when he had to hide out on Primary Night because he enjoyed the worst showing in a Democratic gubernatorial primary ever, he still is making attempts to run for president in the future.

Run, Andy, Run!

It will be great fun to see you win one delegate in a presidential contest the way Giuliani did when he ran for president.