It's quaint to look back on the '92 primary season. As late as December 19, 1991, former NY Governor Mario Cuomo still hadn't finished playing "Hamlet on the Hudson," keeping primary voters strung along - and, by the time he made the "no go" decision, strung out.
For the '08 calendar, that would mean keeping primary voters guessing until December 19, 2007.
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Sometime before 5 P.M. on Friday, someone will walk into the New Hampshire Statehouse here, take the stairs or the elevator up to Room 204, and file a declaration of candidacy for Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. Or they won't. It's all pretty much the same to Debbie Ascani.
"We'll treat them as cordially as we treat anyone else," said Ms. Ascani, an assistant in the Secretary of State's office, pausing briefly from her work of processing Presidential primary forms. "As long as they meet the qualifications, we let them all in."
There are now less than 24 hours to go before the filing deadline for the nation's first primary, to be held here Feb. 18, and still no one, perhaps not even the Governor himself, seems to know whether he is going to enter it. Such uncertainty is clearly enough to provoke anxiety attacks in Albany and Washington. But it does not seem to have so much as raised the pulse of the New Hampshire electorate.
Field of 49 and Counting
Perhaps this is because with 49 candidates having already filed for the primary, and new ones showing up every half-hour, it is hard to get too worked up about one more or less. Or perhaps it is just that Governor Cuomo, the prospective front-runner in the Democratic field, has simply waited out his welcome.
"I don't think anybody really cares at this point," said Neil Cannon, a Concord resident who was having a cup of coffee across from the Statehouse this morning. "It's all just a game."
Laurence Wolfe, who has been taking stereoscopic pictures of the major presidential candidates for five elections, said that he still hoped to have a chance to take a three-dimensional shot of Mr. Cuomo. But he, too, said the delay had mitigated enthusiasm.
"I think he's hurt himself," he said of the Governor. "There are people who are anxious to see him run and people who are not, and both of them are annoyed by this wait."
Strange Logic of Noncampaign
Today in New York, the Governor was asked whether Friday was "decision day," and replied, somewhat self-evidently, that "on the New Hampshire primary it is." This answer appeared to leave open the possibility that he could miss the New Hampshire deadline and still continue to think about running, a move that would seem to be very much in keeping with the strange logic of his noncampaign so far.
Since he reignited speculation about his plans almost 10 weeks ago, Governor Cuomo has cycled though an entire Rolodex of rationales for why he may or may not be running for President, the latest, issued earlier this week, being that he may have to declare his candidacy in order to convince Republicans in the New York State Senate to cut money for schools.
Far removed from Albany politics, New Hampshire residents have understandably had a hard time keeping track of the Governor's thinking. But many said today that they were nevertheless convinced that Mr. Cuomo was not being up-front with them.
"He's up to something, but I don't know what," said Bob Chase, who was smoking a cigarette at the Brown Bag Deli, directly under a sign thanking him for not smoking. "He's very sneaky."
The Concerned, or Curious
Despite the general sang-froid in New Hampshire, there were many today who remained concerned, or at least idly curious about the Governor's plans. These were the people who spent the day trying to reach Chris Spirou, the chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, to vet the latest rumors.
"I feel like a scientist who gets calls about the sighting of a U.F.O.," Mr. Spiro said. "I say, 'Did you sight it in Albany, or did you see it in Concord?"
Mr. Spirou said that he had not been contacted by the Governor since the wild speculation about a Cuomo candidacy began over two months ago. This, he said, put Mr. Cuomo among an fast-shrinking group of registered Democrats.
"For a long time I felt like the Maytag repairman, sitting next to the phone," he said. "Now, you pick up the line by accident and you meet a Presidential candidate."
At the New Hampshire Statehouse today, Presidential candidates at times seemed to outnumber the reporters who were there to watch them file. Patrick J. Buchanan arrived this morning to register his candidacy against President Bush; later in the day, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder of Virginia and former Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California officially entered the Democratic primary. More than a dozen lesser-known candidates also put in an appearance.
It is widely recognized that if Governor Cuomo ran, he would have a sizable advantage in name recognition over his Democratic rivals. But today several self-confessedly obscure candidates indicated that the Governor had handed them a character issue that they intended to run with.
"It shouldn't be that hard to decide do you want to run," said Dr. Nathan Averick, a physician who drove in from Chicago to file his candidacy this afternoon.
"Making up my mind," he added, "is one of my greatest attributes."
ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.H., Dec. 19
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Four campaign cycles later, four campaign cycle half-lives later, Gore probably knows that he cannot reprise Cuomo's Hamlet on the Hudson routine.
Even Donna Brazile, Gore's campaign manager from '00, seems to be giving him until late this month:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_gore#2008_Presidential_election_plansAs the NYT story above illustrates, eventually, voters tire of being strung along.
Gore can only reach into the candy hearts box and pull out a "Maybe" a few more times before voters find another Valentine.
- Dave
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