Governor Cuomo had the great hall of Cooper Union in stitches yesterday with one of his famous extemporaneous speeches, prompted by the fact that the evening's featured speaker, John Edwards, was delayed by traffic.

Mario Cuomo at the Lincoln Lectern

As is the way of such things, the audience got an earful, including a polished critique of the Reagan years; a wonderful human being himself, the man, with some accomplishments, but also the cause of much that is wrong in America today, and the initiator of not one, but seven, one two three four five six seven, tax hikes. Mario Cuomo, as an aside, seems to be coming into his own as the elder statesman of New York Democrats; it's not an overstatement to say that waves of affection spilled over that stage.

The real meat, however, was in Cuomo's remarks on the Presidential race.

"John Edwards was ready to debate. We called other people and told them that. They didn't want to do it."

"I'm not going to endorse anyone until this series is over and people start giving details about what they want to do."

"John Edwards has a terrific plan on healthcare - I'm not endorsing anybody - but he has a great plan on healthcare."

That should cause some consternation in the camp of a local favorite daughter, which was recently crowing about having New York all sewn up on the endorsement front. The series the governor is referring to, incidentally, is the Cooper Union Dialogue Series - Addresses to the American People, which, if this example is any indication, is well worth your while.

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