Mario Cuomo, Former New York Governor, Dead at 82

Ever-eloquent Mario Cuomo, a son of Queens who rode his rhetorical gifts to three terms as New York governor and tantalized Democrats by flirting with a run for President, died Thursday. He was 82. Cuomo passed away just a few hours after his oldest son, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was formally sworn-in to a second term in Manhattan. "He couldn't be here physically today ... but my father is in this room," Andrew Cuomo said in his inaugural address. As governor, Mario Cuomo wrestled with two recessions and presided over a massive expansion of the state prison system. A liberal, he bucked the political winds by wielding his veto pen year after year to block the restoration of the state death penalty.