During the final months of his 2010 campaign for governor, Andrew Cuomo, the former United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, found himself high above Manhattan, sitting across a table from Stephen Ross. To most political analysts and voters, Mr. Cuomo's gubernatorial ascendance was already a foregone conclusion, thanks, perhaps, to the precision of an inner circle jam-packed with believers plucked from HUD and the attorney general's office, yes, but also to a thick core of purple-veined veterans tied to dad Mario's 11-year reign.

Former gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino briefly introduced Newt Gingrich today at a rally in Buffalo, starting off with his trademark line, "Are you still mad as hell? You're fed up and you're not going to take it anymore?"