The Contender

Now in paperback, a no-holds-barred biography of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo by Vanity Fair writer Michael Shnayerson.

He is the most fascinating politician in American today: tactically brilliant, charismatic, yet also dark, brooding, and vindictive. He is an old-school boss who rules by fear even as he puts himself forward as the new, twenty-first-century Democrat. In many ways his story is iconic: scion of a political family, the Italian-American governor's son who aims for nothing less than the presidency. A cabinet secretary at thirty-nine, he ran for governor in his first bid for elected office and was soundly drubbed, even as his high-profile marriage to a Kennedy daughter ended in tabloid scandal. How he pulled himself up--first as attorney general, then as governor--is great political drama.

Cuomo has proven he can twist arms like Lyndon Johnson and make a legislature work--a skill notably lacking in our current president. He scored a rousing victory by getting marriage equality passed in a state that had blocked it twice before. He has also seized power at every opportunity, alienated allies and rivals alike, and micromanaged to the point of obsessiveness, bringing to mind another, less celebrated president: Richard Nixon.

Will Andrew Cuomo's political gifts lead him to the White House? Or will his demons--and his lifelong quest to outdo his father--keep him in the governor's mansion, looking for another place to go?