“Make This Garbage Country Great For The First Time” has a nice, populist ring to it.

Every time I say that Chris is the “smart” Cuomo, people scoff, and who can blame them? They’ve watched CNN. But there’s no way around it. The essential truth of it is demonstrated again and again.

There’s already an obvious retort to “Make America Great Again,” one that’s been used by Democrats sporadically for the past two years: America is already great. Even Team Hillary, an outfit not known for its political deftness, went that route. Leave it to this tin-eared dummy to try something original and completely blow it, enough so to evoke audible gasps from a liberal crowd. You can sort of understand his instinct: For the most part, leftists agree with this. David Rutz half-joked that his primary opponent, far-left Cynthia Nixon, won’t bother using this against him because she likely concurs and so do most New York voters.

But most Democrats, especially ones with national ambitions, have the basic horse sense not to frame the point in terms these blunt. “We’ve had too many moments when we’ve failed to live up to our greatness,” “we must strive to let all Americans participate in our country’s greatness” — that’s the sort of thing you’d hear from Obama, and that’s the point Cuomo’s trying to make here (I think). But Cuomo’s gonna Cuomo.

Imagine being a consultant for this guy, knowing that he’ll be a 2020 contender if he wins reelection, and watching him hand Republicans an attack-ad soundbite this sugary sweet, wholly unnecessarily. His aides must day-drink.

Update: His aides cleared away the bottles on their desks for five minutes to draft a clarification.