Speculation is rampant this morning that President Obama will boot Vice-President Joe Biden off the ticket in 2012 and replace him with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo:
NEW YORK POST: A Prominent Republican is joining a prominent Democrat in predicting that Gov. Cuomo will become President Obama’s running mate for vice president next year.
Former New York GOP boss William Powers, credited with playing a key role in electing Rudy Giuliani mayor and George Pataki governor, was effusive in his praise of Cuomo’s successes in the just-ended legislative session, and in his prediction of the freshman governor’s political future.
“Andrew had a fabulous session. It was fabulous. A property-tax cap, ethics reform and, for Democrats, gay marriage,” said Powers.
“I don’t think there’s any doubt Obama is going to pick him as his running mate. The president is in trouble and [Vice President Joseph] Biden doesn’t bring anything to his ticket.
“The president will call him up later this year and say, ‘Andrew, you have to do this for the good of the country.’ What’s Andrew going to say, ‘No?’ “
Cuomo, who saw a flurry of predictions last week in the wake of the gay-marriage victory that he’ll run for president in 2016, has repeatedly refused to discuss the possibility of higher office.
He wouldn’t comment either on Powers’ prediction, but a source familiar with his thinking half-jokingly said this when asked what action Cuomo would take if Obama called to offer him the nation’s No. 2 position: “He won’t answer.”
Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown earlier this year also predicted that Obama would pick Cuomo to replace Biden, who he claimed would be named by the president to replace Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. . . . Read More
I really don’t think this will happen. If it does, it will show just how desperate Barack Obama is in his bid for re-election. To replace Biden would be a tacit admission that he made a bad choice to begin with – which is true, of course, but Obama is not very good at admitting he’s wrong.
If he does replace Biden with Cuomo, it won’t help him in the General Election. Cuomo is from New York – which is already a virtual lock for Obama. Cuomo will now be known primarily as the Governor who brought Gay-Marriage to New York. The Left won’t believe this, but Gay-Marriage is still not popular with a huge number of Americans. In fact, whenever an amendment upholding traditional marriage and banning same-sex marriage has been placed on the ballot, it has won in every state (except for one proposition in Colorado) – including far-Left California. Running on bringing Gay-Marriage to the whole country by picking Cuomo, is not going to help Obama get re-elected.
