Adam Wainwright, Derek Jeter & NY’s race for governor

In a pivotal scene of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men, a tough and hardened Marine colonel named Nathan Jessup declares “You can’t handle the truth” to the young military attorney questioning him during a court-martial proceeding.

The colonel, portrayed brilliantly by Jack Nicholson, may be on to something, albeit not in the context he uttered in Sorkin’s 1992 film.

This summer, more than 11 million of us watched the Major League All-Star Game, which doubled as a much deserved (and perhaps overdone) tribute to New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who was making his final appearance in the midsummer classic.

When Jeter led off the game with a double to right field, even Sorkin could not have written a better script. But that all changed when Adam Wainwright, the pitcher who faced Jeter in the first inning, revealed he had given the Yankee shortstop an easy pitch to hit.

A Tale of Two Governors

It was quite a week for governors on both sides of the Hudson.

First, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo achieved one of his most important goals when the New York Legislature mustered the votes needed to approve a same-sex marriage bill, which he promptly signed into law. Less than seven days later, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie scored a major victory of his own when the New Jersey Legislature passed a landmark measure reforming the state’s public pension and benefit system, which he signed promptly into law.

Cuomo and Christie are different governors from different states and different parties, and the goals they achieved this past week addressed vastly different issues. Still, there are a few similarities in the circumstances surrounding each governor’s success.