The Political Interest: Cuomo, the Last Holdout

Back before BEST SEX I EVER HAD rendered Donald Trump's mid-life crisis as understandable as George Bush's aversion to broccoli, America's tabloids salivated over death sentences. Stays of execution drove big-city newspapers to dizzying heights of headline-writing competition. One memorable New York Daily News screamer took the prize with a two-word expression of considered opinion: FRY HIM!

Readers are also voters -- or at least some are -- so it is not surprising that death can drive politics. This year it seems that a Democrat who does not affirm his affinity for snuffing murderers may as well concede before the campaign...