Draft in the Air? Cuomo’s Door Open

After the Iowa caucuses, New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo expressed relief that people would finally stop talking about him as a presidential prospect and focus on the announced candidates.

He then proceeded to outline how he could run for President if drafted at a deadlocked Democratic National Convention.

Almost a year to the day after announcing that he would not seek the presidential nomination, the nation’s most prominent Democratic non-candidate is still saying he will not run and then describing how it might happen.

After noting that Monday night’s caucuses had failed to produce a strong front-runner for his party, Cuomo said that if he were not opposed to the whole idea he “could probably construct a lawyer’s argument” for how a New York governor could run for President from a convention draft.

Cuomo, 55, said a draft would require him to “get in shape the second half of July and campaign August, September and October when everybody (in state government) is on vacation anyway.”

Cuomo has refused to rule out accepting a draft. In one interview last year, he said he would accept a draft if “by accident” party leaders made it his “obligation.”