Former San Francisco Mayor and onetime California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown Jr, is one of those smart political analysts well worth hearing — and pondering. He doesn’t always get it right but he gets a lot of it right. His latest prediction: Barack Obama will replace Joe Biden (who long wanted to be Secretary of State) with New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo, clearly an up and coming national Democratic star.
Cuomo’s office denies any interest, which makes political sense — but don’t discount all of Brown’s prediction (NEVER discount totally what Willy Brown says):
Brown, who writes a well-read column for the San Francisco Examiner, was touching on widespread speculation that Vice President Joe Biden is not exactly an asset and might be dumped from his post by an increasingly nervous and poll-challenged President Obama when he declared:
“Here’s a prediction: Vice President Biden moves over to secretary of state, with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo stepping in to bring new blood to the Obama re-election campaign.
“He’s a big name, a big-state governor. And a Democrat who is taking on the issue of pubic-employee salaries and pensions. Plus, he looks good,” Brown wrote.
A source close to Cuomo said the governor was flattered by Brown’s observations, “especially his saying that he looks good,” but insisted the governor had no plans other than to work hard during the 3½ years remaining in his term.
“The governor is committed to working for the people of New York and is not going anywhere,” said the source.
This could be another case where Brown gets it partially right..right on the dime:
Brown is well-connected and knows what’s happening behind the scenes. I take this as meaning within the context of what Brown has picked up a Biden move to Secretary of State would not be surprising. Discount all assurances from Obama or Biden right now that nothing will change. Biden could well stay where he is but if there will be change in the future it will — once more — be a matter of timing.
If Cuomo is not available, it would mean Obama has to find someone who can make a big splash as VP — someone who can get media attention.
But Donald Trump is working the other side…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.