[ Cheers and applause ] -[ Crowd chanting ] Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

Four more years!

-Alright.

[ Crowd cheering ] I think that's just been arranged.

[ Cheers and applause ] -The United States has just woken to four more years of President Reagan to one of the most stunning election victories of all time, and to the realization of the changed country it has become.

[ Poignant music playing ] -Republicans are gleefully equating the president's personal triumph with a permanent conservative tilt in America.

-This country needs a new administration with a renewed dedication to the dream of an America.

And so help us God, we will make America great again.

Thank you very much.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Deep divisions have split apart what once was the Democratic coalition?

-If the Democratic Party is indeed worn out.

What happens to the Democratic Party?

-We have to put people forward and we will put people forward who appeal to those voters.

-And that means looking at Mario Cuomo.

-President Reagan told us from the very beginning that he believed in a kind of social Darwinism.

Survival of the fittest.

Make the rich richer, and what falls from the table will be enough for the middle class and those who are trying desperately to work their way into the middle class.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Cuomo is the man with the magic.

Ever since his 1984 convention keynote speech, he has been the man with the words that make the hearts of voters take wings.

-I think Mario Cuomo has a real sense of the weakness of 1980s economics, of favoritism to the rich.

-Will he or won't he?

-Democrats could learn soon whether New York Governor Mario Cuomo will enter the presidential race.

-There's nobody better at expressing the traditional Democratic message that government can help than Mario Cuomo.

He goes straight at the moral heart of the issue.

-There is still no answer from Governor Cuomo about whether he is running for president.

-This is his last shot.

If he doesn't run, I don't think the train's going to come around for him again.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Music fades, ends ] [ Birds chirping in distance ] [ Dog barking in distance ] -I think it's important to remember Mario Cuomo, because he offered a real-time critique of an immensely important American era.

In some ways... Jefferson got to be president, but we still study Hamilton.

Reagan was a two-term president, but in the same way, we ought to still study Cuomo.

[ Soft piano music plays ] -The word keeps popping up in my mind, "soul," and Mario Cuomo had soul.

He was a guy who in public life tried to marry the public Mario Cuomo with the private Mario Cuomo and to behave honorably.

Didn't always succeed at that.

Most people don't.

But he had a soul and he was constantly questioning himself.

[ Soft piano music continues ] -I always remember just sitting across the desk from him and listening to him muse.

He loved talking about philosophy and Teilhard de Chardin, and he made people feel that... government was noble and that caring for others was noble.

There was just so much to him.

-We were not aware at the time that daily writing was something that he was committed to.

[ Soft piano music continues ] -I've kept a journal all through the years I've been in public service.

I usually do it pre-dawn and it's a lovely quiet time of the day.

And I do it mostly to keep my perspective intact, because you oughtn't to be allowed to fool yourself.

And so the diary is a kind of accounting on a regular basis.

[ Soft piano music continues ] -I think the diary was very important to dad.

It was a form of catharsis for him in that at many turns he was struggling.

There are tensions, you know, tensions of the soul.

There's a lot to be learned through the diaries.

[ Soft piano music fades, ends ] -"It was by way of the law that I came to politics, or rather, that politics came to me.

I had never even considered the possibility of a political career."

Now, however, looking back, I can see that the beginning was actually in 1960."

[ Up-tempo jazz music plays ] [ Traffic passing ] [ Up-tempo jazz music continues on radio ] [ Indistinct chatter ] -New York then was much like it is today, very ethnic.

It was a city of Poles and Jews and Italians and Blacks and Puerto Ricans.

Ethnic enclaves and racial segregation were real in New York.

- I'm first generation American of Italian descent.

There is still in this country an image of Italians that is not flattering, because wherever you have difference -- and the United States is constantly attracting different people -- wherever you have difference, you're going to have prejudice.

-My father was breaking into the legal profession.

But those days, the big firms were slow to hire ethnics.

-When I graduated from law school, I was first in my class, but could not get an interview at a big law firm because my name was Mario Cuomo, and Italians weren't able to get interviews.

As a matter of fact, they suggested I change my name to become less Italian, less obviously different.

And if I were to be less Italian than what would I be more of?

What would I be?

[ Slow instrumental music plays ] -Andrea and Immacolata Cuomo, my father's parents, came to America when they were very young, in their 20s.

[ Foghorn blows ] -My grandfather was a laborer.

He was a ditch digger, then ran a small grocery store.

-He worked very hard.

He got up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning and took his horse and buggy into Manhattan to pick up the fresh produce.

-The whole world came through the grocery store, and so it became a very natural thing to deal with all kinds of people under all kinds of circumstances.

Sometimes they were happy, sometimes they weren't.

Sometimes they had arguments.

[ Indistinct arguing ] -They struggled, as probably most immigrants did in those days.

We did hear stories of discrimination.

People throwing rocks in the window of my grandfather's store.

-I think dad always had a bit of a chip on his shoulder because of his upbringing and how he felt so deeply for them being mistreated that way.

It pained him to see, you know, his dad cry.

[ Soft instrumental music continues ] -He decided to go to law school.

Make mom and pop proud?

No.

Stand up for them.

Let them see that the opportunity, all that hard work had been justified.

[ Soft instrumental music fades, ends ] -My father worked very hard as a general practitioner because he practiced every kind of law from criminal to matrimonial to real estate, just everything.

-He quickly migrated to community issues like condemnation.

Back in those days, the government would condemn.

They would say, "I need this.

It's a public purpose, and I am taking it."

And he saw this as taking advantage of the little guy because you could.

-He read a story in the "Herald Tribune" about these junkyard operators and Willets Point, Queens.

They were being condemned so that they can build Shea Stadium.

[ Jubilant band music plays ] -In order to get things done and done properly.

People must be inconvenienced.

-The power is asymmetrical.

The government has all the power.

These shop workers have next to none.

But here came Cuomo.

He said, "Hey, well, let's, you know, let's not get rid of these people's businesses.

They're working people.

They're trying to make a living."

-He went pro bono and represented them in the condemnation process.

-He's maybe 32, 33 years old, and he's taking on the government, frankly, with a lot of chutzpah.

Ultimately, it was taken to court and Cuomo won.

-That was one of his transformational experiences.

And then there was another situation in Corona, Queens.

The city of New York was going to come in and condemn 69 homes.

-And how did you get involved in that one?

-A relative of one of the junkyard owners called me and told me about their situation.

I made the fatal mistake of accepting an invitation to meet a group of the women in their kitchen one night.

They were very much, incidentally, like my own mother and father.

They were, for the most part, either immigrants themselves or no further removed from the immigrant origin than first generation.

And I found the case irresistible.

-He said, I can represent the interests of the people.

And he won.

-I spent a lot of time representing people against government, and I got a growing sense of the imperfection of the political system.

I think government has a purpose.

I think the purpose of government is to help those people who have been left out.

-He did it with such eloquence and passion, and people in the community loved him for it.

-From, you know, that moment, he was known to be a burgeoning talent.

He had the eyes of, you know, local journalists like Jimmy Breslin, who heard him speak 1 or 2 times as a young lawyer.

They recognized an ability to create consensus at a time lacking moral leadership in New York City.

[ Fast tense music plays ] [ Sirens wailing ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -The '70s were just a legendary time of crisis in New York City.

[ Sirens wailing ] -That period is one of intense anti-government sentiment.

-The people here believe, honestly, that this is the last area that the city remembers, the mayor, the governor, any politician.

This is why the people are angry and do the things that they do.

-Governor Hugh Carey says, "Who can we get to bridge the difference between people and government and the powers of government?"

He looked to my father.

-Well, he's icy cold when he sees outrage or injustice.

He can turn very hard when he sees some -- something mean, and, shall I say, unwholesome in society.

-Governor Carey wants Mario Cuomo to run for mayor of the city of New York.

-My father was not a political person.

He didn't like politics.

He didn't especially like politicians.

-They never came to my neighborhood in South Jamaica.

They were never there for Mama and Papa.

They never helped us one bit, as far as I could tell.

I despised them.

-He also was afraid of the impact it would have on his family.

Mario's anchoring as a person, as a humanist was his family.

[ Soft piano music plays ] -I met Mario right in the '50s, the early '50s.

I was in a teacher's college Everybody had little groups who they knew.

I didn't know too many people.

He introduced himself.

-My father seemed to be going down the path of a professional baseball career.

-He was a good athlete, strong, quick, incredibly tough.

His hands were like catcher's mitts.

You know what I mean?

And every time he would try to be nice.

But it was like... [Laughs] ...on the side of your head.

And he was a winner by disposition.

-It's probably not that well known that my father was injured by a ball.

-I got hit in the back of the head, had a blood clot on the brain, but I never would have been a good enough ballplayer.

My heart wasn't in it.

I couldn't see myself spending 10 or 15 years.

I wanted very much to -- to do something I thought was going to be meaningful.

I wanted to have a family.

-I think I came in the picture.

He started to jolt himself and say, "What am I really doing here now?

Am I going to get married," you know?

[ Soft piano music plays ] I wound up with five kids.

[ Children chattering echoes ] -You know, we grew up around the kitchen table.

We were very much a part of everything.

So family was always important.

-People wanted him in politics.

I would say to him, "Mario, it's up to you.

You know what you can do for the people."

And it's just in your heart and your mind what you want to do, because you cannot force anybody to do that kind of work."

-Mario does not want to run for mayor.

He says, "I am not doing that."

But Governor Carey was persuasive.

[ Poignant music plays ] -Later this week, voters in New York City will get their first chance to vote for their next mayor.

-But candidate Mario Cuomo is the hand-picked candidate of the governor.

-We get into this race, and it's Mario versus Ed Koch, and he tried to do all the things that candidates for mayor do.

-You know, we were all scurrying around him, trying to learn on the fly what we were supposed to do.

-Only a few years ago, I was a practicing lawyer and a professor of law.

And the last thought in my mind was to be a politician and to get involved.

-Clearly, Mario Cuomo did not like running for mayor.

-I remember seeing him in a couple of different settings down here, and I thought, "Where did this guy come from?"

-Listen, you couldn't shut me up with $100,000 worth of lawsuit, and you're not going to do it here.

Now, let me -- let me finish.

-Cuomo presents a picture of a man genuinely anguished -- I don't think that's too strong a term, even -- -And angry.

-And angry, at the political process he chose to enter.

-Dad didn't like campaigning and your marketing of yourself, but he spent a lot of time talking to people.

-Are we losing lives now, or is that just dramatic political talk?

-12,000 as we predicted.

-12,000 people die.

-In the city of New York will die this year.

-Whose life we would be able to save.

-If we had an adequate emergency medical services system.

-If he didn't have it before, it gave him the -- the taste of public service and the good you can do.

-He was an intellectual.

He was a philosopher.

He was involved in politics as a means to an end.

The end was social justice.

The end was equity.

And my father found that inspiring.

-In New York City The voters picked the heavy favorite, Democratic Congressman Ed Koch, to be their 105th mayor.

-We had lost.

And honestly, it was tough and I was crying.

-One of my children said on the way up here, "You know, Dad, it's tough to say you lost when you worked so hard."

And it is.

There's no question about that.

Before, frankly, we hadn't thought it worthwhile doing.

And now, for the first time in a long time, a lot of us thought it was worthwhile doing.

And we tried.

And that was a beautiful thing.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Poignant music fades, ends ] -The day after he lost, everything went back to normal.

He wanted to be home with my mother.

That's what he wanted to do.

There was no feeling sorry for yourself.

Or, as pop would say, emoting.

Deal with what needed to be dealt with.

He'd get up, go into his office and just move forward.

[ Soft piano music plays ] -I think my father was a sensitive soul and he would try to reflect.

I really think he took things to heart and wanted to do his best.

He had a very high standard for himself.

-He would wake up at 3:00, 4:00 in the morning, and he would just be reading and writing and thinking.

He agonized and he worked and he pained over society and humanity.

[ Soft piano music continues ] -"I fought a thousand fights, but not enough the good fight.

"That is the truth and it is part of the pain in my chest.

So all that is left is to try again and to do what I know I should do."

[ Soft piano music continues ] -There was an opening for a lieutenant governor for Hugh Carey, and he picked Mario Cuomo.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Soft piano music continues ] -I never did this.

[ Laughs ] [ Laughter ] -I, Mario M. Cuomo.

-I, Mario M. Cuomo.

-Do solemnly swear.

-Do solemnly swear.

-That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

-That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

-Mario Cuomo made the most of his role as lieutenant governor.

He was accessible and he had answers to everything and was more than happy to talk to you.

-Okay, a Democrat joining earlier Republicans talking about the need for a business tax cut.

Do you buy the idea?

-Yeah, eventually.

I think, you know, when you can afford it.

I certainly wouldn't give up aid to the homeless for it, nor would I cut back dramatically on psychiatric facilities, nor would I make it harder to teach young children in order to give a business tax cut, so it all becomes relative.

-Cuomo was thinking about what is the right role of government in advancing lives of prosperity and of purpose.

To some extent, it seems to me that Cuomo might have begun many of his... figurative conversations with FDR in 1933.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] This is the first time in human history when people, because of the depression, they were moving from farms to cities didn't have the means to feed themselves.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] [ Cheers and applause ] -Franklin Roosevelt becomes president of the United States and the Democratic Party through Franklin Roosevelt, They were architects of a state-sponsored safety net.

This was the New Deal.

And Cuomo comes straight out of that tradition.

-I think Roosevelt was right.

I think that that was the kind of government that gave my mother and father an opportunity.

They were able to live quite comfortably after working very hard, because this was a society whose government felt it had an obligation to take care of them when they needed relief.

I think we're beginning to forget that.

[ Slow poignant music fades, ends ] -What do we want?!

-Crowd: Peace!

-When do we want it?!

-Crowd: Now!

-What do we want?!

-Crowd: Peace!

-When do we want it?!

-Crowd: Now!

-Cuomo comes to the conversation at a time of political uncertainty.

-The cynical '70s may be what future historians will call the era with reason.

In the last 10 years, we lost a war.

A president was caught lying and resigned.

Inflation mounted.

The mood of the country changed.

Americans had turned skeptical.

The national spirit was mistrustful of the government and of each other.

-So the '80s began with the country really in the mood to move on.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] [ Mid-tempo music continues ] And along comes Ronald Reagan.

A figure from the American Midwest goes out to Catalina Island near LA and gets a Warner Brothers contract.

[ Camera shutter clicking ] Great American story, immensely popular.

Reagan had been a four time FDR voter, but he grows more conservative, and by the time he's on the national political stage, Ronald Reagan is arguing for a kind of prosperity, a kind of individualism for people who weren't particularly well off but wanted to be.

It was a Hollywood story about America.

-Do you think materialism is the source of our strength and greatness as a country?

-Sure, because it's the kind of materialism that is based on individuals wanting better things, more comfort.

People who are free to climb as high and as far as his own strength and ability will take him.

-Reagan was a brilliant articulator of the free enterprise system.

It was about the size of government.

[ Slow poignant music ends ] -It wasn't as if Reagan wasn't trying to help people have better lives, but it was a totally different approach.

-Reagan said government is the problem.

That's antithetical to everything that Mario Cuomo believed.

[ Tense music plays ] -It would be terrible to have Reagan in the White House.

If he meant what he said, there'll be no money for transportation because he said the people who ride the train should pay for them.

If he meant what he said, there'll be no more money for education because he said the Department of Education should be closed down.

That should be a local function.

If he meant what he said, he's going to return to us welfare and Medicaid.

-Cuomo was telling a different story.

-People have turned very much, uh, in on themselves, have become a lot more self-centered than we used to be.

-But one of the things about popular American politics is people prefer someone to be a happy warrior and not a grim one.

And Ronald Reagan, whatever else you want to say, was the happiest of warriors.

-I voted for Reagan.

-Why?

-Why?

Because I think he's strong.

I think he's intelligent.

I think he has the right ideas.

-You have this political discontent that Reagan masters, marshals, deepens, and is then strong enough to attract traditional FDR Democrats.

-We lost.

-Ronald Reagan won New York State.

A blue state was turned into a red state.

-Together, we're going to do what has to be done.

-We're going to put America back to work again.

[ Cheers and applause ] -I first met Mario Cuomo in 1980, right before Reagan took office, when President Carter sent a delegation to Italy for the -- at the time of the earthquake in southern Italy.

He was the lieutenant governor of New York at the time, and I was like a volunteer in the Democratic Party in California.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] -An eight member U.S.

delegation visited the earthquake-devastated region of Southern Italy today to determine how best to spend the $50 million in American relief aid.

-We were going to towns up in the mountains.

[ Siren wailing ] -An immense rescue operation was underway as hundreds of thousands of rescue workers tried to find victims in the mountains of rubble.

-[ Man sobbing ] -Imagine the suffering of these people.

That to me, was so brutal.

But Mario Cuomo, now I'm just getting to know him, to see him with the people who were struck by the tragedy... you could see how his compassion was so overwhelming.

He spoke to them in Italian.

And our Italian-American heritage is very closely aligned with our religious faith.

[ Down-tempo music continues ] -My father always considered himself a committed Catholic.

He was raised in the church and treasured its Catholic spirituality.

-He loved Latin Mass.

That deep voice, "Agnes Dei."

[ Gregorian chant plays ] -Our Catholic faith carried a call to action.

[ Indistinct chatter ] [ Gregorian chant continues ] He made a tremendous difference on that trip.

It was a high-level delegation, and even among all of them, Mario stood out.

It was clear that he was destined for even greater things than lieutenant governor of New York.

-I have not heard from you, Mario, in at least 5 minutes.

-[ Laughter ] -So help me God.

-Someone asked what was the role of the Lieutenant Governor to be And the suggestion was that the Lieutenant Governor ought to think of himself as the body at an Irish wake.

It is... [ Laughter ] It is -- It is necessary to have you in order to have the party.

But they don't expect you to do a great deal.

[ Laughter ] -Cuomo had lofty visions and ideals, but no lieutenant governor really gets the best issues to deal with or, you know, is at the forefront of the decision making.

And no lieutenant governor is a happy person after a while.

-I could offer a theory about Mario.

-Um, go right ahead.

-That he is in a position which is not exactly a highly visible role, and he must be getting a little restless and... -No.

I'm fine.

[ Laughter ] -Good evening, and welcome to a whole new political landscape for New York.

Hugh Carey is not running for governor, but Lieutenant Governor Cuomo is.

-He jumped right into it, as did my mother, and they were all over the state.

-Dad had very strong views for what he wanted to achieve.

-Ronald Reagan cut nearly in half the growth in federal spending.

The least-popular programs have been cut the most.

These are the programs in which the poorest Americans depend for help.

-Mario Cuomo now views himself as a man with a mission.

The son of Italian immigrants, he preaches that government has a moral mandate to reach out and help people in need.

-I think this election for governor is going to test the soul of the Democratic Party.

I think what this election is going to be about is whether or not Democrats believe in anything.

-Mario Cuomo was not in doubt about wanting to be governor the way he was in doubt about whether he wanted to be mayor.

-We have to continue to make this state understand that it has to work harder to meet the new obligation created by the failure of the federal government to do the right thing.

-But, I mean, he's running against a guy who is reasonably popular.

-Republican Lew Lehrman is running a multi-million dollar campaign.

He is a wealthy, independent businessman and a political rookie.

-I represent the politics of the future, a new way of providing an economic environment where once more we can compete, where we can grow again.

-What he's saying now is exactly what President Reagan said in 1980, and he said it in almost the same words.

I have a magic solution.

It'll make everybody happy.

-The candidates have had several debates covering a wide range of issues.

Lehrman wants to cut welfare spending.

Cuomo says such cuts would be a turning away from government's mission.

Lehrman supports the death penalty for cold-blooded murder.

Cuomo prefers mandatory life sentences.

-He was against the death penalty and felt passionately about it.

-You don't instruct people in violence.

The government that you elected, the government of the mighty United States of America in the state of New York is going to announce.

I want you to see what we do to this man.

Now we strap him in.

Now we pull the switch.

Now we burn the flesh off his body.

That's our idea of justice.

What kind of instruction is that?

-And that was very unpopular position then, because crime was a huge issue.

-We were in fear.

You can't walk the streets.

Christ, they'll come right into your own house and kill you.

And if Cuomo loses the election, he's going to lose it primarily on that one issue alone.

-The death penalty.

I believe that.

-My mother came to me and said, -"You're going to lose."

-I said, "Why?"

She said, "You know what the people said to me?

'How come your son is so big and so strong?

He's so stupid and is so weak, you know, on the electric chair?"

I says, "Ma, then I'll lose."

She says, "You don't have to lose.

Here's what you do.

You tell the people you want the electric chair.

After you win the election... [ Laughter ] -He was a very self-controlled individual.

"Well, they say you should do this."

"Who's they?

Who's they?," he would say.

Who cares what they say, right?

It was about what he believed.

-It was very important for him to maintain a consistent pose between what he privately believed and what he publicly said.

And, but that's why the middleman in all this is that diary he kept.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] -"It is clear that the lack of confidence, even disdain for what government can do, is helping push the population of the city and state dramatically to the right.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] That leaves the politician with choices.

Go along with the dominant trend to assure yourself popularity enough to win the chance to serve.

That's good politics.

It wins.

Another choice is to try and lead by pointing to what you think is a better way.

This is risky politics, and today it doesn't appear to succeed often.

But it's the only kind of politics I'm comfortable with.

[ Slow poignant music fades, ends ] [ Indistinct chatter ] -The campaign is in the homestretch and the issues have boiled down to two -- the economy and crime.

-Election night of '82 was certainly frenzied.

[ Cheers and applause ] -I'm here at Lehrman headquarters.

John, what are the latest figures statewide that you have?

-The latest figures statewide show Lou winning by about 50,000 votes.

[ Cheers and applause ] -The polls did not look so favorable for him.

And I said, "Dad, you know, how do you feel about this?

Do you really think you have a chance?"

And he looked me right in the eye and he said, I'm going to win."

And sure enough, he was right.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] -The elected governor of the Empire State of New York, Mario Cuomo!

[ Cheers and applause ] -We have always been the party of the underdog, the little man, always the party of the people.

We are the party that opened its arms to that magnificent generation of immigrants, persecuted because of the tint of their skins.

A party that can cry and smile and laugh and hope.

Tough enough to fight and win, but warm enough to love.

[ Cheers and applause ] -In practical political terms, what the Cuomo victory means is a partial repudiation by the New York electorate of Reaganomics.

What it also means is that Mario Cuomo, outspent and without much help from his National Party, was able to reassemble the classic ingredients of the Democratic Voting Coalition.

[ Applause ] -It hurt my father that his father didn't live long enough to see him win.

He would have been so proud that he had taken the opportunity.

He had done right by them.

-I pray that we all see New York for the family that it is, that I might be the state's good servant, and God's too.

And pop, wherever you are, and I think I know, for all that the hegemony and the big house and the pomp and circumstance, please don't let me forget.

Thank you and God bless.

[ Applause ] [ Slow poignant music ends ] [ Indistinct conversations ] I feel good.

I don't feel anything but a little fatigue at the moment because it was long, but I -- I feel that given the way we ran this campaign, uh, we have been given a very solid vote of confidence, and I feel good about it.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] [ Mid-tempo music continues ] -The move from Queens to Albany, I have to say, was life transforming.

It was a very comfortable, family like situation with staff.

-We had a lot of turkey sandwiches thanks to Matilda.

-It was a very giving, giving kind of politics at that time.

[ Applause ] -My mother was able to rise to the occasion in an elegant way.

A gracious first lady of the state of New York.

Matilda you look gorgeous!

-Thank you!

-Just gorgeous.

-She could enter a group of strangers and start talking with them and feel very comfortable.

She often made it easier for my father.

[ Speaking indistinctly ] -This is Jennifer.

-Hi, Jennifer.

-It wasn't always an easy experience for mom.

-Mrs.

Cuomo said settling into the mansion would be a relief after six months of commuting back and forth from Queens.

-You know, my husband's keeping me very busy.

I'm going to be chairing the Council on Children and Families.

I'll be hosting at the mansion, our first meeting for the Citizens Task Force on Child Abuse and Neglect.

-Being his wife and a political wife was a big job.

There were five of us at different ages and lots of demands.

-Okay, Matilda.

Get the stretcher ready.

-Okay, I'm going to give you a little kissariniroo.

Your favorite Veal Spiedini.

Mmm-mwah!

Yeah.

-Too salty.

-Yeah.

Really?

-No!

You have to be lucky to be together for 31 years.

I think I'm the luckier of the two.

I think I got more out of the bargain than she has.

I say to myself, "Well, the next 31 years.

I'll give her the better part of the bargain."

-Mario established himself very quickly as always being in touch with people.

I remember the first meeting I had with him.

He walks into the office and he's literally carrying 500 envelopes full of letters, you know, that he would answer.

-I want to hear what you have to say.

You do get listened to.

I just proposed some amendments to my original budget to meet the needs that we understood better after we heard from the people.

-Number one constitutional job for a governor and the legislature is to get a budget done for the state.

And he worked at it.

He worked extraordinarily hard.

-What is this a canapé?

Sheesh!

-Literally six, seven days a week.

-Most candidates campaign in poetry, but when they're elected, they are forced to govern in prose.

And there's a difference.

The prose is harder.

And it's here in actual governance that all those noble aspirations and neat promises and slogans get bent out of recognition or even break as you try to nail them down to the procrustean bed of reality.

[ Pensive music plays ] -We're going to move now to budget negotiations.

They began this week against a backdrop of heavy lobbying from all sides.

-You really have to make a determination where the priorities lie.

-The assembly's number one priority is tax cuts.

I think what we're witnessing here is almost a constitutional struggle between the two independent branches.

-Cuomo was trying to house the homeless.

He was trying to give assistance.

He was trying to be the -- the family that he wanted for people.

But he didn't like that he had to negotiate or had to sweet talk.

He wanted to do good things his way.

-I asked for the opportunity to be accountable for the MTA.

Would you believe that?

And they said no.

You see, if you break this down to negotiable, non-negotiable, some of the items, it was just no chance.

Will you talk about PSC Reformation, Dale?

Nah!

Well let's talk.

How about if I go?

Nah!

That's no good.

-For all of his strengths as a public man, Cuomo does have his flaws.

-Long winded, argumentative, doesn't think much of reporters and says so.

-He can be moody and temperamental.

-I prefer not to do it that way.

-I had the feeling sometimes that he felt he was the smartest person in the room.

He probably was the smartest person in the room, but he also let people know that.

[ Pensive music slows ] Somewhere in there, I think there was an insecurity.

You know, coming from the grocery store and coming out of Queens and not getting into a white shoe law firm, you know, because you were Italian.

Very sensitive about things like that.

-My father was absolutely and profoundly flawed as a human being.

He would tell you that.

He had temperance issues.

He had political flaws.

In a way, my father had almost zero ambition.

He had 100% competitiveness.

If you asked my father, "Do you think you're a smart guy?"

"No.

Smarter than you, though."

That's where he would lock in.

-Well, let me let me warm up.

Get out of my way.

I'm the governor.

-I would sometimes watch him play basketball with Chris, and they would go under the boards.

They would elbow each other and stuff.

It was quite extraordinary how competitive they were.

And, you know, this is your son.

You're beating up your son.

-The lessons came through how he dealt with the constant knocks and how he refused to lament.

-[ Mario panting ] -He liked to prepare because you do not know what comes next.

[ Tense music plays ] -AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome kills 4 out of 10 people who acquire it.

And that mortality rate may climb.

-It appeared a year ago in New York's gay community.

Now it's been detected in heavy drug users.

-I'm suffering.

I can't sleep at night.

-People had the wrong idea.

They thought they could catch it in ways that they couldn't catch it.

-AIDS victims are being treated like modern-day lepers.

-They have no business in our public schools.

-This is a disease against humanity and something has to be done about it.

But no one cares if a bunch of faggots die of a disease.

-President Reagan had not mentioned the word AIDS still in the early years.

[ Indistinct chatter ] [ Laughter ] [ Laughter ] -It's really my pleasure to introduce a man that I'm very proud to work for, a man who I think is a friend of ours, Governor Mario Cuomo.

[ Applause ] -Cuomo wanted to help, and he wanted there to be treatment and facilities, but he was incredibly uncomfortable talking about it... as a Catholic.

-He was an old school Italian Catholic.

He saw romance and affection, and sex was not for him.

If you were going to kiss your spouse in front of him, you'd better make it quick.

-Governor Cuomo.

-Yes?

-Uh, it seems that if you're concerned.

-We had a whole almost hour on AIDS and what he was doing and what the state was doing.

And the longer it went on, the more he kept staring down at the desk.

-...deals with saliva to saliva contact.

-And so he was uncomfortable.

But, um, it didn't stop him from trying to do the right thing.

-I would like your reaction to a column by the "New York Post."

"AIDS is almost entirely a disease caught by men who refuse to assume responsibility for their own sexual habits."

-Well, that's -- that's a typical -- -And that people are responsible for their own choices.

-Oh, that's fine.

Then you shouldn't take care of syphilis.

You shouldn't take care of anybody who sins.

You know who that's going to leave out?

All of us.

-The state is spending more than $13 million for research, education, and outreach programs.

In addition to this AIDS unit, the department is also spending another 3 to $4 million on a special hospital wing in New York City.

-He tried to do everything they could possibly do around research, funding, protecting the community.

-You know, unfortunately, it was never enough.

There were too many lives lost.

-This is a state of emergency!

We have people that are dying yesterday and today!

-One of the first advisors to the governor on gay issues, LGBTQ issues was Peter Vogel.

-There's an interesting dichotomy in these arguments.

On the one hand, we have parents in Queens who are afraid to have a child come into the classroom because they may breathe on their children.

So obviously it can be in their minds, transmitted very easily.

On the other hand, it has to be through repeated promiscuous sexual contact.

I find these arguments, obviously the arguments are contradictory to one another.

-He was one of the unfortunate people to be diagnosed with HIV and AIDS.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] As he was passing, we went to visit him at NYU hospital.

The reporters wanted desperately to go.

and Mario said, "No.

This is a personal thing."

We went into that room, Mario Cuomo and myself.

He grabbed Peter Vogel from the bed, put him to his chest and hugged him and kissed him on the forehead.

[ Down-tempo music continues ] -You know, it was quite astounding when you think about it, that a guy would do that when it was afraid, even if he got into the same room with somebody with AIDS, you were going to die.

But he made no doubt about it.

You know, it's the right thing to do.

[ Down-tempo music continues ] -He wished he could do more.

He had a great fear of failing people and failing God.

-He had a faith that was dear to him, and that was powerful because the language of religion of the church had been appropriated, frankly, by conservatives, by the Republican Party.

[ Festive band music plays ] -Ronald Reagan's last campaign is underway.

-The mission in this campaign is to get people out of the pews and into the polls, with Ronald Reagan making a direct pitch, both to the religious right and to the Catholics.

-Religion and politics are necessarily related.

We need religion as a guide.

-He was using the language of morality to win over religious figures, American Catholics.

-What's happened is that political conservatives and religious conservatives for the first time have formed a massive majority.

-This was a new thing in American politics, primarily because of abortion.

-Stop the killing now!

-I do not see how a Catholic could vote for an individual favoring abortion.

-Pro-Life!

-One of the great moral sins that is violating our very constitutional guarantee of right to life is now prevalent in abortion on demand.

[ Applause ] -Reagan believed in not terminating a pregnancy, but not feeding the baby after it comes.

And the hypocrisy and the contradiction is very clear.

-You have President Reagan, who talks constantly about prayer.

That's interesting.

He doesn't go to church.

The -- So I think it is a fact that Reagan has a monopoly there and ought not to.

-He saw that religion was used by people in a way that was overtly political and shallow.

It was a real test about faith and about God and about what it is to be a Catholic... and a politician.

-I can believe, as a Catholic that abortion is wrong.

That doesn't mean that in this pluralistic society, I must require that you believe it.

Nobody is ordered to have an abortion.

If your judgment is that it's a sin, then you don't have an abortion.

But in this state of laws, in this nation of laws, people have the right to free choice.

-That put him at odds with the church and with many in the community.

-The Catholic Church demanded that Catholic lawmakers bow to the teachings of the church.

-What does it profit a man?

Or what will he give in exchange for his soul?

Is it a half term at Albany?

Is this all?

It is murder, and you, sir, are a murderer because you pay tax dollars to kill helpless little babies.

-Well, now, you see -- -Dr.

Nathanson made these lies up.

-Excuse me, do you want to discuss this or don't you?

You're not afraid to discuss it, are you?

-They were out to kill him, and the church said they were going to come after him.

And they did.

-He was being attacked and some of the members of the Catholic Church, the hierarchy, were saying quite extreme things.

Basically, you can't get into heaven if this is your position.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] -One of the main Catholic officials mentioned that my father should be excommunicated for what he said.

-Dad was a person of tremendous Catholic convictions and it hurt him.

It hurt him to be criticized by his own church.

-[ Mario sighing ] -He didn't go to mass because he didn't want people to see him there and feel awkward because of what had been said, and that killed him.

But he had an offsetting virtue.

You never backed down from any kind of conflict at any time.

-He found the opportunity at Notre Dame to give this speech.

For those of us who are Catholics and our role in public service.

-It was not universally accepted, but he was willing to take the risk.

-Well, [chuckles] any, uh, good political, uh, chief of staff or adviser is going to tell you, "Absolutely not.

It's fraught with all kinds of pitfalls."

But I think Cuomo's talent was his ability to transcend those things.

-The Catholic Church is spiritual home.

My heart is there and my hope.

But there is, of course, more to being a Catholic than a sense of spiritual and emotional resonance.

Approval or rejection of legal restrictions on abortion should not be the exclusive litmus test of Catholic loyalty.

We should understand that whether abortion is outlawed or not, our work has barely begun.

The work of creating a society where the right to life doesn't end at the moment of birth.

If we care about women having real choices in their lives and not being driven to abortions by a sense of helplessness and despair about the future of their child, then there is work enough for all of us.

Lifetimes of it.

-It was such a breakthrough for so many of us, and the manner in which he presented it, really through faith.

-We can be fully Catholic, proudly, totally at ease with ourselves, a people in the world, transforming it, a light to this nation, appealing to the best in our people and not the worst.

Persuading, not coercing, leading people to truth by love, and still all the while respecting and enjoying our unique, pluralistic democracy.

[ Applause ] -A new poll was released this week and Cuomo hit an all-time high.

-I think it is his substantive dialogue on this church state issue, which I think people are responding to that.

-Well, you compare how he does.

Then you take a look at Ronald Reagan.

-There is a clear -- -I'd say there are crossovers.

-There's clearly a group of people who both like Mario Cuomo and Ronald Reagan.

-I present to you the President of the United States.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Reagan spoke to Americans.

He talked about the success of a nation by GDP.

But growth alone is not success for a country.

How is that growth distributed?

[ Slow poignant music plays ] Income and wealth inequality soared in the Reagan era.

-Well, we're a group of people who are trying to work and be just like anyone else.

It's just that we happen to live in a place where most people are poor.

-President Reagan said claims that his policies cater to the rich are "falsehoods and fiction."

But studies show that in the last four years, families at the bottom of the income scale have lost all the ground they gained over the preceding 20 years.

-Mario Cuomo had been warning us about this very thing that if we don't right the ship, we're going to leave lots of people behind.

-The president asks the question.

The question is, are you doing better now than you did 4 years ago?

Not are we doing better now?

-We reformed the welfare system and got the cheaters and the undeserving off the welfare rolls.

-What are you going to do for us?

-I'm trying to tell you.

[ Indistinct shouting ] -The past 2 or 3 years of Reagan had all been about how if you weren't making it in America, you were, you know, laying down sideways in the public trough, that somehow you were greedy or a welfare queen.

-But I know now there is no program or promise that a president can make that the federal government can come in and wave a wand and do this.

-My father recognized how Reagan's policies were affecting his constituents.

-There are over 7,000 children who are homeless in New York City.

-We need federal help with long-term solutions, with the development of jobs and low-income housing, for example.

-Mario said if the federal government won't do it, we'll do it for our citizens.

But he had a Republican Senate leader who he had to deal with.

So the houses were split, which makes it more complicated for a governor.

-It's not popular right now to advocate for the homeless.

-It's the same old message.

It's spend, spend, spend.

-What Mario is doing is inviting the homeless from all over this country to come to New York State.

-The Senate Republicans can block any program they want to block.

-Ultimately, he got both sides to agree.

And yet there was a tight budget and he had a compromise.

-We didn't get everything we wanted and therefore the people didn't get everything I thought they should have.

-He took a tremendous, tremendous toll with his constituents.

-What about mental health, where there's real problems and where he's making speeches about the family and how great it is and cutting mental health money?

I don't like that.

-You had a strong commitment to public higher education, and I think it's a lot of garbage, and you really haven't lived up to it.

-Governor Cuomo seemed to be a figure somewhat given to anguish.

-The mayor has asked for $90 million more.

-Right?

-Where should we get it?

-I'm not -- That's not my full time job.

I'm a student.

I don't have the time to, like, investigate every little thing.

-If you're the governor of New York State, you belong to millions of people.

And so you better be as open to that kind of exchange being energizing as opposed to being depleting or you're not going to make it.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] -He was frustrated, seeing that he wasn't able to give back in a way that he wanted to.

-Again, we're talking about a guy who really measured himself and kept score by whether he was, you know, doing the right thing and doing something consistent with what he believed.

And at times he thought he couldn't do that as a politician.

-He is a very monitored person.

Every time he just starts to be happy, something goes off and he pulls himself back in.

I finally said to him, "Governor, are you a happy man?"

-Happy?

I'm content.

I enjoy what I'm doing very much, but I don't think much about happy.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] -Why?

Isn't that allowed?

-Yeah.

No.

It's allowed.

I'm content.

Um... I'm pleased to have the opportunity to serve.

-He would just dig deep inside himself.

He just disappeared.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] -"I sat back from the kitchen table and all of a sudden felt the way I have from time to time since I was a child -- Alone.

I felt it this morning.

For a moment, my only relationship to the others in my world was to be sure that I did not hurt them."

-It's genuine in the diaries when he talks about, you know, getting away from it all and being alone and the time by himself.

He loves doing this or he wouldn't be doing it.

But there's the... There's an inner conflict that never went away.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] [ Slow poignant music fades, ends ] [ Cheers and applause ] [ Chanting indistinctly ] [ Indistinct shouting ] -Thank you.

[ Horn blows ] Mr.

Vice President... delegates to this convention, four years ago, we proclaimed a dream of an America that would be a shining city on a hill.

We promised that we'd reduce the growth of the federal government and we have.

We said there must be jobs with a future for our people, not government make work programs.

And in the last 19 months, as I've said, 6.5 million new jobs in the private sector have been created.

-That's because there are more people looking for jobs.

This is incredible.

Unfortunately, it's not incredible.

-We bring to the American citizens in this election year a record of accomplishment and the promise of continuation.

We came together in a national crusade to make America great again and to make a new beginning.

[ Cheers and applause ] -There are two Americas here.

-There's Ronald Reagan, where everybody's having a good time and has a job, and then there's... -"A Tale of Two Cities."

-...doom and gloom Democrats.

-No, it's not gloom and doom Democrats at all.

As a matter of fact, no, I reject that.

I think the confident party is the Democratic Party.

It's the Democratic Party that says we can do all the things you want to do without leaving people out.

What they're saying government shouldn't be a family.

Government shouldn't be providing for everybody.

He doesn't believe government can do it.

I say I know we can do it.

We did it for 50 years.

That's how I got here.

This is now a radical right approach.

That's the worst, it seems to me, than a radical left approach.

Radical left approach at least makes a mistake trying to help people.

Radical right makes a mistake trying to avoid helping people.

[ Indistinct TV chatter ] -At the time, I was the chair of the California Democratic Party.

We're hosting the convention in San Francisco.

[ Train car bell dinging ] Mondale was going to be the nominee, and the consensus was that if we could get Mario Cuomo, it would be so fabulous to have him be the keynote speaker.

-What about the talk that you might have the privilege of delivering the keynote address?

-I've discouraged that, actually.

-Why do you discourage such an opportunity?

-Because it became a contest.

-I think there was some insecurity there.

Some feeling that maybe I'm not up to it.

Maybe I'm not good enough.

-I think my father, while in some ways fearless, was driven by fear of failure, fear of falling short.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] -"Every day, a thousand lost opportunities.

Every day closer to the end.

If only everything we did, we did in light of that, how differently we'd act.

I'm pained by so many hurts, so many mistakes, so many missed opportunities.

It's a hard game.

But the game is lost only when we stop trying.

[ Slow poignant music continues ] -In a dramatic surprise, the governor was selected to be keynoter at the Democratic National Convention.

-Cuomo says he'll talk about his favorite theme, the government's role as protector of the American family.

-The approach that Cuomo takes in his speech will set the tone for the campaign.

[ Steadfast music plays ] [ Typewriter keys clacking ] -My father's writing process was a personal experience for him.

-Dad really looked up to Lincoln and his beautiful writing, and the way he sought out opportunities to make a speech on controversial issues.

-He related to Lincoln more than anything.

So that's what my father spoke about.

How do you take those really difficult issues of the day and take them head on and resolve them?

He would be consumed by it.

He would do a draft and then he would circulate the draft, and then we would come in 4 or 5 of us and go through that version of the draft.

-He would leave it alone for an evening and go back to it and tweak it and tweak it.

-The keynote speech didn't have anything he hadn't said before.

He put different themes together, almost as an exercise for himself.

That went on for a period of weeks, literally 60 drafts.

[ Steadfast music softens ] It was almost a poetic exercise.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] What he wrote was beautiful And he wanted it to be beautiful.

-The Democrats have now opened their 39th nominating convention and they are overdue for a good one.

Governor Cuomo probably is being asked to do the impossible, which is to electrify this convention and send the party home from San Francisco united in mind, body, and image.

He's the man who did not speak English until he was 8 years old.

And yet tonight he is to speak not only to the party, but also to the nation.

[ Cheers and applause ] -We can all tell because we've been to a lot of conventions, the measure of success is the depth of the silence to pay attention.

When Mario Cuomo spoke, the stillness was eloquent.

-Ten days ago, President Reagan admitted that although some people in this country seem to be doing well nowadays, others were unhappy, even worried about themselves, their families and their futures.

The president said that he didn't understand that fear.

He said why this country is a shining city on a hill.

And the president is right.

In many ways, we are a shining city on a hill.

But the hard truth is that not everyone is sharing in this city's splendor and glory.

A shining city is perhaps all the president sees from the portico of the White House and the veranda of his ranch, where everyone seems to be doing well.

But there's another city.

There's another part to the shining city.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] In this part of the city, there are more poor than ever, more families in trouble, more and more people who need help but can't find it.

There is despair, Mr.

President, in the faces that you don't see, in the places that you don't visit in your shining city.

In fact, Mr.

President, this is a nation.

[ Applause ] -He purposefully took on the president directly.

This was a risky speech that had been his message.

That's what he was saying during campaigns.

But now you come to the keynote.

Now he's on a national stage.

And it was unusual to be that personally direct.

-Mr.

President, you ought to know that this nation is more a tale of two cities than it is just a shining city on a hill.

[ Applause ] -The phrase city on a hill comes from John Winthrop, the Plymouth Settler.

But it really comes from Jesus.

It's in the Sermon on the Mount.

Ronald Reagan added the word "shining," and Cuomo's brilliant device was to take a shining city and show that there were different neighborhoods within that.

It was a big, eloquent, memorable statement of what the Democratic Party meant.

-We believe in a single fundamental idea that describes what a proper government should be.

The idea of family mutuality.

The Republicans believe that the wagon train will not make it to the frontier unless some of the old, some of the young, some of the weak are left behind by the side of the trail.

We Democrats believe in something else.

We Democrats believe that we can make it all the way with the whole family intact.

And we have more than once.

[ Cheers and applause ] Ever since Franklin Roosevelt lifted himself from his wheelchair to lift this nation from its knees, wagon train after wagon train to new frontiers of education, housing, peace, the whole family aboard, constantly reaching out to extend and enlarge that family, lifting them up into the wagon on the way, all those struggling to build their families and claim some small share of America.

For nearly 50 years we carried them all to new levels of comfort and security and dignity, even affluence.

And remember this.

Some of us in this room today are here only because this nation had that kind of confidence, and it would be wrong to forget that.

[ Cheers and applause ] -I will tell you, it was an electrifying moment.

My father would often raise an audience up to his level.

You know, we just soared with him.

-That struggle to live with dignity is the real story of the shining city.

And it's a story, ladies and gentlemen, that I didn't read in a book or learn in a classroom.

I saw it and lived it, like many of you.

I watched a small man with thick calluses on on both his hands work 15 and 16 hours a day.

I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet.

A man who came here, uneducated, alone, unable to speak the language, who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.

I learned about our kind of democracy from my father, and I learned about our obligation to each other from him and my mother.

They asked only for a chance to work and to make the world better for their children.

[ Cheers and applause ] -He came out himself with that speech, and he did it, boy.

It wasn't just the words and the sentiment, but he had the heart.

And you could see this man means it, for God's sakes, because politics was not like that.

He sort of gave it a punch.

-We Democrats must unite.

We Democrats must unite so that the entire nation can unite for the family of America.

For the love of God, please make this nation remember how futures are built.

Thank you and God bless.

[ Cheers and applause ] [ Slow poignant music continues ] [ Cheers and applause continue ] [ Slow poignant music continues ] That was Governor Mario Cuomo who gave a speech that, I must say, after covering these things since 1960, I think has given back the Democratic Party its soul.

[ Cheers and applause continues ] -He gave this speech in San Francisco, and everyone wanted to hug him afterwards and tell him how great it -- Mario, it's so great.

You're great.

You're the future of the party after, you know, blah blah, blah, blah blah.

And what did Mario Cuomo do?

He got on a red eye plane and flew back to New York.

[ Scattering clapping ] -On a big high this morning.

-No.

I'm beat.

I'm very tired.

This is what showers were invented for, was mornings like this one, frankly.

-How did it feel standing up there addressing that convention, sir?

-It was very hot.

It was really very hot.

The lights are very hot.

-Do you have a talent for national politics?

-No.

-What do you mean you don't have?

You were standing up on the front of that convention, and you seemed to have.

-I think what happened last night was that I opened the cover to a book that, uh, is just the kind of book of truths about where we stand on the issues that our case is a very strong one.

-Mario did a good job saying things that would rouse the crowd, but the real reality of all of this is people will get down to deciding whether they ought to vote for Mondale or Reagan, and that won't have much to do with the speech last night.

-Mr.

President, all three networks have projected you as the winner.

-America's best days lie ahead.

[ Crowd cheers ] And you know I'm gonna do it just one more time.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

-There was no doubt about the size, the proportion of Mr.

Reagan's victory.

He won the electoral vote by the second largest margin in modern American politics.

-That election was a big disappointment.

There was a lot of conversation about the Democratic Party and about who we are as Americans in a broader sense.

-The old alignment of the New Deal coalition has been shattered.

-What you really need is you need then a figure who can draw together labor, minorities, small farmers, etc.

-The Democratic Party has to appeal beyond its base.

And one person they might do it is Mario Cuomo.

[ Mid-tempo music plays ] -He had built up popularity after the keynote speech.

People were going nuts.

-Everybody wanted him.

-I think Mario Cuomo would be the next perfect Liberal Democrat.

-His popularity in New York State is as high as I've ever measured.

-I was completely ready for Mario to run.

I had called people all over the country to sign up in support of Mario Cuomo, You send it to draft Cuomo.

And the address is five... -Great.

-Okay.

-This effort on his behalf is a message to him to enter the race for the presidency of the United States.

-I mean, I really thought this guy's going to be president.

You know, this is it.

[ Mid-tempo music continues ] -So I had it all lined up.

I had binders at home of all the people who wanted to volunteer for Mario Cuomo across the country.

And we were ready.

-He looked into staffing questions, looked into how to -- how to do it.

But he was perfectly capable of indecisiveness.

-Governor, if drafted, would you run?

-I'm not going to answer the silly question.

-I mean, you're not ruling out a run for the presidency.

-I am not ruling out being manager of the New York Yankees.

I have to hurry.

I'm about to make an announcement at the Capitol, I'll see you later.

-You're gonna make an announcement?

-No.

-No.

-There was a huge internal conflict over whether we wanted to be president or felt he should be president, and it went back and forth.

Why would you want to be president?

-To help people -To run or not to run?

Sometimes the signals switch hourly.

-Mario Cuomo knows he is taking a risk by waiting to announce whether or not he'll run for president.

-It's interesting to think about how emotion came into play in dad's decisions around his career as a politician.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] He would tell me how he was struggling.

It had to be tough to think, am I worthy of this?

Am I going to be able to step up to the enormity, the gravity of this position?

You know, making decisions can be difficult and staying true to your conscience and your moral compass and what you know is right can be very difficult.

-The governor has until 5:00 tonight to file papers to enter presidential primary.

-Reporters and photographers have been staking out Mario Cuomo's office since 8:00 this morning.

State Democratic Chairman John Marino has a chartered plane to New Hampshire standing by here at the airport in Albany.

-A longtime Cuomo aide said that Cuomo was very close to making a decision.

[ Typewriter keys clacking ] -But one of the things that I respect most about dad is that he was authentic.

He was who he was always.

[ Indistinct chatter ] -I wish to express my gratitude to all of those who have worked so hard in recent days to prepare for a possible candidacy, and I want to extend my thanks to the many, many hundreds, even thousands who indicated that they were prepared to support me.

At the same time, I recognise that there are already in the field a number of excellent candidates that can move this nation toward a more inclusive, more progressive, more intelligent court.

I will do all I can to help them.

[ Indistinct chatter ] -I'm in the car and I hear them say, Mario Cuomo has said that he's not running for president.

[ Gasps ] Oh, my gosh.

-Stunned everyone, myself included, by deciding not to run.

There was disappointment.

A lot of disappointment.

-I felt the sadness and anger and frustration at Mario Cuomo for not running.

-For months, as you know, I focused my energies on dealing with the state's budget problem.

It's my responsibility as governor to deal with this extraordinarily severe problem.

Were it not, I would travel to New Hampshire today and file my name as a candidate in its presidential primary.

-His excuse was that he needed to finish the state budget.

But I'm not sure he... You know, if it had really been in his gut, he would have found a way to do it.

-Does it pain you that you may have missed a moment in history for yourself, for the country?

-It would have been nice to run for president.

It's probably more of a privilege than I ever felt I deserved.

-The closer you got to Mario Cuomo, the more you knew he did not want to run.

Do you know how many conversations I ever had with my father about running for president, and whether he regretted it.

Zero.

-I think you need a really strong ego to say this country needs me and only me.

Uh, that's not who he was.

-My sense is that Governor Cuomo was driven by an immense urge to serve a sense of duty... but he also wanted to be a human being.

And sometimes being a human being and being an American politician are hard to reconcile.

[ Slow poignant music fades, ends ] -Welcome to our broadcast.

With me tonight is Mario M. Cuomo.

Last month, he announced that he'd run for a fourth term as governor of New York.

This could be his hardest race since 1982.

His approval rating is down to 34% after three terms.

The voters of New York are saying, "We're not sure that Mario Cuomo has done such a great job, folks."

-That last campaign was tough.

And, you know, in retrospect, I don't know that dad should have run that last time.

There was such a heavy feeling of the need for change that dad personally couldn't do anything to overcome that sentiment.

-Cuomo has lost the star quality he had when presidential speculation fever was at its peak.

Now, 61% of voters believe the state is going in the wrong direction.

-We can't wait for the governor to fund his 5-year plan.

-Not okay, Mario, do something about it.

People in the community are working on this.

-We really need someone with a different outlook.

-I think we just need a change.

Get other new blood in.

-Mario was tired at that point, didn't have the conviction he had when he ran for governor in '82.

I keep coming back to, and I think it's true, the chasm between the public Mario and the private Mario and the private Mario won.

[ Train car rumbling ] [ Slow poignant music plays ] -In New York, Governor Mario Cuomo lost his bid for a fourth term, beaten by little known Republican challenger George Pataki.

-I've surely made mistakes as governor, but I'm as proud as I can be of what we have accomplished together.

And New York is to the nation what the church spire is to the village, the symbol of aspiration and faith.

The white plume saying the way is up, not down, not backward, up.

Excelsior!

Let's keep going up!

Thank you.

God bless you.

[ Cheers and applause ] Thank you for everything.

[ Slow poignant music fades, ends ] [ Slow piano music plays ] -Once we lost, we found an apartment, Midtown.

He says he was elected a free citizen.

He went back to the law firm and worked.

And he was so looking forward to practicing the law again because he loved the law.

He walked to work every day.

He didn't want any security.

He wanted to be on his own.

He loved speaking to people on the street.

-My father would have been excellent on the Supreme Court.

Was he offered that multiple times?

Yes.

His humility got in the way on that one.

But you got to love him for it.

You got to love him for it.

For what he turned down.

-He was alive when I ran for governor.

[ Cheers and applause ] -Thank you.

-Democrat Andrew Cuomo follows in his father's footsteps.

-Straight to the governor's mansion.

-I had said to him when I won that it was a redemption for him after his loss.

He would like to joke and say, "You know, they vote for the last name, not the first name.

[ Laughing ] Right.

[ Indistinct chatter ] -And he was Grandpa.

-I got the camera.

Go get the case.

-He had granddaughters that just adore him.

And he had one grandson.

Chris's son Mario, was his one grandson.

And they shared such a special bond.

-I think he was satisfied with his later life, I really do, in the sweetness and simplicity of his later life.

[ Slow piano music fades, ends ] -He would raise the subject of death periodically when he was quite ill at the end of his life.

-He goes to have this checkup, and they tell him that he's got this funky heart disease that's super rare and there's nothing you can do about it.

But as he would say, you do not control what comes to you in life very often.

All you control is how you deal with it.

[ Down-tempo music plays ] -He retreated quietly, and we knew he was -- He was making a transition in that way.

[ Down-tempo music continues ] It was a bitter, bitter, cold January snowstorm, and it was just, you know, snow falling on New York City streets.

[ Down-tempo music continues ] [Marching band playing ] -Droves of people came out to his wake.

It was extraordinary in the worst of weather.

So many who had been personally affected by the man.

And miss him deeply.

-My father was my best friend.

And his wisdom grew as I grew older.

I believe my father's spirit lives in the family of New York.

At his core, at his best, he was a philosopher and he was a poet, and he was an advocate and he was a crusader.

Mario Cuomo was the keynote speaker for Our Better Angels.

The last few days he was slipping.

I went to his bed and I said, "Dad, my inauguration is today.

Do you want to come?"

And there was no response.

He knew that the event was at 4:00.

My father passed away at 5:15.

He waited.

He was here.

And, Pop, a day will not go by that I don't miss your smile and your strength.

I love you, pop.

And I always will.

[ Down-tempo music fades, ends ] -There's a tendency in the American historical imagination, I'm guilty of it all the time, to focus only on the presidency, as if the president is the only political actor of a given -- given era.

That's not the case.

You always to properly understand history and how what happened happened, you have to understand the chorus, the conflict, the voices around that given era.

[ Slow poignant music plays ] There is an irony that the man who articulated the great Anti-Reagan case never took his own stand in the presidential arena to run against that vision of the country.

-In the push for empire and aggrandizement, Frankly, the Reagan era, what it represented was winning.

Someone gives you the brass ring, you take it.

You don't hesitate.

But there's something instructive about the power of walking away.

What are our own personal limitations?

Where are our own boundaries?

What will you say no to?

-It's very easy to drift.

It's very easy to get mesmerized by the -- the frenetic activity of the moment.

It's hard to remember what you are in the overall scheme.

I have to remember what I am, what I'm not, what I'm supposed to be doing, and to do it all better.

-Mario Cuomo wasn't in politics to have power.

He was in politics to have a mission and give people hope.

-That was the gift he gave all of us.

As governor, even as lieutenant governor.

Even as the lawyer that saved the Willets Point junkyards, he had one mission in hand.

-In some ways he may have been ahead of the American people.

They were not ready to prioritize what he had to say.

I think if he were here now, he would be a voice that is so needed.

-This is really an important moment to carry on his legacy.

-We have to be better.

We have to fight for Mario Cuomo's vision for this country, even in a losing battle, because you have to believe that, as Dr.

King said, the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.

-You're supposed to help people who are in trouble.

-You're supposed to reach down and help people out of wheelchairs.

You're supposed to love people.

That's the whole law.

You can make all the rules you want.

You can build all the great buildings you want.

You can write all the commandments you want.

There's one that counts more than any.

And it's called love.

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