By DAVID KLEPPER and MICHAEL HILL Associated Press
ALBANY N.Y. (AP) Mario Cuomo had a loud and liberal voice that inspired a generation of politicians to turn to public service and a story of humble beginnings that he wove into calls for social justice during his three terms as New York governor and years as a national figure and hesitant presidential candidate
Cuomo died Thursday of natural causes due to heart failure just hours after his son Andrew began his second term as New York's chief executive. He was 82.
The son of Italian immigrants Mario Cuomo played minor league baseball before embarking on a legal and political career. His oratory and his dedication to progressive policies made him a political star but despite calls to seek the White House he never made a run for president.
Hours before his father's death the younger Cuomo delivered an inaugural address in which he honored the Democratic stalwart.
He is in the heart and mind of every person who is here Andrew Cuomo said. He is here and he is here and his inspiration and his legacy and his experience is what has brought this state to this point. So let's give him a round of applause.
President Barack Obama telephoned Cuomo Thursday and offered his condolences. In a statement the president called Mario Cuomo a determined champion of progressive values and an unflinching voice for tolerance inclusiveness fairness dignity and opportunity.
Cuomo served as New York governor from 1983 through 1994 and became nationally celebrated for his ability to blend the story of his humble upbringing with ringing calls for social justice.
He was also known for the presidential races he stayed out of in 1988 and 1992. Cuomo agonized so publicly over whether to run for the White House that he was dubbed Hamlet on the Hudson.
In 1991 Cuomo left a plane idling on the tarmac at the Albany airport rather than fly to New Hampshire and jump into the battle for the presidential nomination at the last minute. He left the door open for a lesser known governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas.
Cuomo's last public appearance came in November when Andrew was re elected governor of New York. The frail looking patriarch and his son raised their arms together in victory at the election night celebration.
Andrew Cuomo said he showed his second inaugural speech to his father who declared it was good especially for a second termer.
Mario Cuomo's big political break came in 1982 when as New York's lieutenant governor he won the Democratic nomination for governor in an upset over New York Mayor Ed Koch. He went on to beat conservative millionaire Republican Lewis Lehrman.
His reputation for eloquence was secured at the 1984 Democratic National Convention when he delivered his Tale of Two Cities keynote address in which he told of the lessons he learned as the son of a grocer in New York City.
I watched a small man with thick calluses on both his hands work 15 and 16 hours a day Cuomo told the crowd. I saw him once literally bleed from the bottoms of his feet a man who came here uneducated alone unable to speak the language who taught me all I needed to know about faith and hard work by the simple eloquence of his example.
The electrified delegates in San Francisco cheered Mario Mario Mario and some wondered whether they had chosen the wrong presidential candidate in Walter Mondale.
While Mondale's candidacy stumbled Cuomo took his oratorical skill to Notre Dame University where as the nation's most famous Roman Catholic supporter of abortion rights he argued the church should not expect him to press for outlawing abortions given that many Catholics themselves were having them.
Cuomo was an unusually cerebral politician given to musing at length about anything from fiscal policy to the Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.
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