Mr. Cuomo's friends and aides say there is little mystery to the governor's approach: his time and attention have been consumed by the difficult task of fixing New York's finances.
Robert Rubin writes: ""Now that the election is over, Washington's attention is consumed by the looming combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases known as the fiscal cliff.
Although other parts of Oaxaca city and rural areas of the state are largely unaffected by the crisis, the government's attention is consumed by it.
These days, Mr. Tsiamis's attention is consumed by a less alluring body of water: the Gowanus Canal, which this month was designated a Superfund site.
NOW that the election is over, Washington's attention is consumed by the looming combination of automatic spending cuts and tax increases known as "the fiscal cliff".
Their deaths seemed especially shocking at a time when the murder rate remains lower than it has been for decades and the city's attention is consumed by fears of terrorism and possible war.
Catherine Kerr, lead author of the new study and director of translational neuroscience for the contemplative studies initiative at Brown University in Providence, in the US, says that when we are depressed, attention is "consumed by negative preoccupations, thoughts and worries".
Gorbachev's attention was consumed by the spiralling crisis within the Soviet borders, not just economic but now embracing nationalist stirrings in the Baltic states and Transcaucasia, and demands for liberalisation at home, opposed by his hardline foes in the Politburo.
But once attentions are consumed elsewhere, game time becomes something else: a luxury.
