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Gov. Cuomo can for get running for pres ident in 2016 be cause Hillary Rodham Clinton is going to beat him — and everyone else — in the race for the Democratic Party’s nomination, predicts one of the nation’s best-known Democrats.
Cuomo’s presidential prospect are “dim” because “it’s going to be Hillary Clinton in 2016,” said former Pennsylvania Gov. and Democratic National Committee Chairman Ed Rendell.
“I think Andrew should look elsewhere . . . Andrew and everybody else will be running for vice president [instead],” Rendell, who backed Clinton over Barack Obama for president in 2008 and is close to former President Bill Clinton, told The Post.
But Rendell went on to say Cuomo could be ineligible to serve as vice president with Clinton because experts believe the Constitution’s 12th Amendment restricts Electoral College members from voting for a president and vice president from the same state.
In a tight election, Democrats would desperately need the votes of New York’s electors to prevail.
“Andrew couldn’t be vice president because he and Hillary are from New York, right?” Rendell said.
Both Cuomo and Secretary of State Clinton are Westchester residents.
Rendell didn’t say why he was convinced Hillary Clinton would run for president in 2016.
Late last year, she called her top Obama administration post “my last public position.”
And while some analysts have suggested Clinton might again challenge Obama in a Democratic primary, leading Democrats say there’s no chance of that unless the president’s approval rating drops sharply among his fellow party members.
Cuomo was widely mentioned as a likely 2016 Democratic presidential contender after he successfully shepherded a gay-marriage bill through the Legislature in late June.
Several Democrats, including former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown Jr., and Republicans have also mentioned Cuomo as a possible replacement next year for Vice President Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate.
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Meanwhile, Suffolk County Sen. Lee Zeldin, a Republican, did his part earlier this month to contribute to the Cuomo presidential talk.
Appearing with Cuomo at a Long Island press conference, Zeldin praised Cuomo’s accomplishments and then contrasted them with the difficulties faced by Obama.
“Putting all politics aside, I would honestly say if you were in the White House right now, our nation would be in a better place today than it is,” Zeldin told Cuomo and the assembled crowd.
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While Cuomo’s tough-talking secretary, Larry Schwartz, has earned the nickname “BB” — as in big balls — from Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver for his rough and forceful style of dealing with the Legislature, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, widely viewed as weak and vacillating, has earned a far less flattering initialed description as “CB,” or chipmunk balls.
Three sources said DiNapoli was regularly referred to in both the former Paterson and current Cuomo administrations as having chipmunk balls or as the “Chipmunk” because of his alleged unwillingness to help the governor battle spendthrift lawmakers.