10 years of 'President Cuomo'? Here's the scenario

Joe Biden is now the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, endorsed by former President Barack Obama, chief rival and socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and second runner-up candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Trouble is, many Democrats look on a Biden candidacy with trepidation or disgust. He was too "centrist" and compromised to satisfy leftists, so he adopted extreme positions to win support from his party's loony left wing. Moderate Democrats therefore recognize Biden as unprincipled and untrustworthy.

Biden put the "vice" in his vice presidency by enabling his disreputable son Hunter to get a $1.5 billion deal from China. This could make a President Biden subject to secret blackmail by Communist China.

The biggest Democratic disappointment is that Biden seems semi-senile and thus obviously lacks the competence to be president. Debating President Donald Trump would expose this, dooming Biden's candidacy (and the Democratic Party) to defeat.

Democrats, however, have a way to win: the "Cuomo Gambit."

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This will be tricky, because former Vice President Biden pledged to pick a female running mate, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, age 62, made a Sherman-like pledge not to run for president in 2020. Both are relatively old white men in a party with a majority of female plus minority and young voters eager to see people like themselves elected.

If Democrats replace Joe Biden with Andrew Cuomo as their standard-bearer, they risk angering both progressives and centrists as behind-the-scenes party bosses again ignore voters and "broker" the process as in 2016.

Gov. Cuomo, son of former Gov. Mario Cuomo, is widely perceived as an experienced partisan leader. Although a radical who backs gun confiscation and post-natal abortion, Cuomo in today's increasingly socialist Democratic Party is a "moderate" pragmatist, not an anti-capitalist.

While some leftists urge Biden to create a British-style "shadow government," the leftist media have already anointed Cuomo its "shadow president," giving nationwide coverage to his daily coronavirus briefings, parallel to Trump's briefings. Cuomo has astutely used these briefings as free political advertising to display heartwarming talks with his COVID-19-infected brother, CNN's Chris Cuomo, and revealing his longing to spend more time with his elderly mother.

Democrats would be fools to try replacing candidate Biden with Cuomo, who did not even run in their primaries. Instead, Biden would violate his vague promise to pick a female running mate by selecting Cuomo as his V.P.

This bait-and-switch gambit violates a fundamental rule: Choose someone from a state you need to win. One early Democratic V.P. favorite was Wisconsin's Tammy Baldwin, in 2012 the first open lesbian elected to the U.S. Senate. Before that, she was a congresswoman since 1999.

Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, only a state legislator before becoming governor in 2019, has zero national political experience. Whitmer is now widely hated in her state for behaving as an arrogant, Caligula-like dictator who describes the abortion clinics she keeps open as "life sustaining." She frantically is seeking national celebrity in hopes of being Biden's running mate.

If Biden picks Cuomo, the former vice president should immediately declare himself unwell, perhaps from coronavirus or an unconfirmed small stroke. He would be given tremendous media sympathy. Cuomo would "reluctantly" replace Biden in presidential debates, calling Trump a "coward" if the president refuses to debate his fellow feisty New Yorker.

Democrats would continue to run their Biden-Cuomo ticket, while hinting strongly that Biden would resign at the first sign of worsening health problems; that Cuomo as de facto co-president would essentially run the government and eventually would choose a woman and/or minority as his vice president. After all, Cuomo never promised not to run as VICE-president.

Cuomo as Biden's heir apparent successor, wrote Lance Morrow of the Ethics and Public Policy Center in the Wall Street Journal, might deny a woman top spot on the Democratic ticket until as late as 2032, which progressive women might find "intolerable."

Joe Biden would enjoy the ego satisfaction of being "president," but would do whatever de facto President Cuomo wants.

Cuomo would rule both America and the U.S. Senate; Biden would "reign," like a modern monarch doing ceremonial supermarket ribbon cuttings.

At some point Biden would resign. If he were to attempt to assert power, Biden would be the ultimate "lame duck." He could swiftly be removed for mental incapacity under the 25th Amendment.

If Biden delays stepping down for two years while Cuomo is our behind-the-scenes president, then under the Constitution Cuomo could serve the remaining two years as president and then be elected to two more full terms – 10 years of Democratic President Andrew Cuomo.

Lowell Ponte is a former Reader's Digest Roving Editor. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and other major publications. His latest paper co-authored with Craig R. Smith, "The Secret War," shows how to rethink several areas of investment to protect and grow your savings against little-known economic threats. For a free, postpaid copy, call toll-free 800-630-1492.