That was fast.
Two days ago, we wondered if President Obama would embarrass Gov. Cuomo during an upstate tour beginning tomorrow.
Specifically, we wondered how Cuomo would react to Obama’s boasts about the increase in natural-gas production on his watch — now a stock reference in his speeches about the middle class — made possible in part by the administration’s embrace of fracking.
We now have our answer: Cuomo isn’t going to give the president the chance, because the governor has made plans to vamoose before President Obama starts talking. After greeting the president when he arrives in Buffalo, Cuomo will skip the visits to Syracuse, Binghampton and other areas.
Our guess is that Cuomo’s absence will only underscore the differences between the two policies. On radio this week, the governor admitted fracking brings economic benefits but went on to insist he still needs more environmental and health studies before a decision.
Obama, in contrast, has clearly made his decision. In last year’s State of the Union, he declared his administration “will take every possible action to safely develop” natural gas and, in so doing, support more than 600,000 new jobs.
He heralded fracking as one part of his “all-out, all-of-the-above strategy” that will prove “we don’t have to choose between our environment and our economy.”
We understand the discomfort it would bring Cuomo to have to stand beside a Democratic president using such language. Then again, it’s nothing compared to the discomfort of those upstate New Yorkers who could use the jobs Obama’s policies would bring, but Cuomo’s denies them.