CHARTOCK: Andrew Cuomo vs. Hillary Clinton showdown looms

By ALAN CHARTOCKFreeman columnist

SO whats really going on between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton?

It is nearly universally accepted that Cuomo will make a bid for the presidency in 2016. While he denies it, he invites comparison with his father who he says, ... peaked too soon. To me, that means that the governor has no intention of peaking too soon.

Cuomo has said that he finds all this talk about his running for president distracting. No, I am sure he never really thinks about running for president, probably not more than every second of every hour of every day of the year.

MEANWHILE, something else is going on. An interesting group of people is encouraging the immensely popular Hillary Rodham Clinton to run for president, despite her having said shes done with politics.

There is her successor as United States senator, Kirsten Gillibrand, for example.

I know Gillibrand and I can tell you that she is one tough cookie. She is a hell of a smart woman who knows how to play the cards and I have never seen her make a political error. When she recently said she would be a charter member of the Draft Hillary for President Club, I think we can assume she knew exactly what she was doing.

She also had to know that when Andrew Cuomo heard what shed said, he would not be a happy camper. Gillibrand must have assessed the risk and figured it was worth it.

TO know Andrew Cuomo is to know that all other politicians are seen as rivals and, in many cases, as the enemy. I suspect he learned that from his pop.

Politics is a tough game and only one person gets to be president. Cuomo is immensely popular in the polls. Nonetheless, the jury is still out as to whether the voters like him personally as much as they like what he has done in New York.

While Cuomo may be popular with the people, it is fair to say that the political insiders arent exactly crazy about him. Mayb! e thats why Gillibrand was recently joined by fellow Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, the sharpest, smartest and slyest politician in politics, when he issued a forceful seeming-endorsement of Hillary for president. When pressed, Silver said that Cuomo was good as well. Continued...

WE know that state Senate Democrats, who are in the minority, dont like Cuomo. They will probably stay in the minority because of Cuomos support for the Republicans in theSenate. Cuomo is anything but a progressive Democrat, while those Democrats in theSenate are old-style tax-the-rich Democrats.

A third person with encouraging words for a Hillary Clinton candidacy is none other than Bill Clinton, who says he hopes that she will change her mind and run for president. Now I ask you, would he do that without his wifes tacit support?

We know that Hillary says she will not do a second term as secretary of state and she has said she wont campaign for President Obama. That sounds like she wants to clear the boards to run.

If the state and national polls are telling us anything, it is that Hillary Clinton would mop the floor with Andrew Cuomo in a head-to-head confrontation.

OF COURSE, its still very early and we do not know why Hillary has said that she wouldnt run. But the tea leaves are all suggesting that a Clinton candidacy is what the people and the political community want.

Hey, its a good thing that Cuomo and his people dont read my column.

Sunday Freeman columnist Alan Chartock is a professor emeritus at the State University of New York, publisher of the Legislative Gazette and president and CEO of the WAMC Northeast Public Radio Network.