During a debate against primary challenger Cynthia Nixon, Gov. Cuomo boxed himself in when asked if he would run for president in 2020.

“I’m running for governor, not president,” Cuomo answered, then added the “only caveat is if God strikes me dead. Otherwise, I will serve four years as governor of the state of New York.”

But now that Nixon is roadkill, the question becomes, how will Cuomo wiggle out of the box? How will he justify breaking his word and mounting a 2020 race against President Trump?

We’ll get the answer in time, but we should assume for now he will be a candidate in the next presidential election.

His ambition combined with the unforgiving reality of politics almost guarantees it.

Besides, following his methodical, 31-point demolition of Nixon, Cuomo would be foolish to miss his opportunity.

If he wins the general election in November, as seems likely, he will be viewed as a top-tier candidate for the Democrats’ nomination, and possibly the front-runner.

In the event Cuomo is tempted to wait another four years, he should study the cautionary tale of his GOP buddy Chris Christie.

The former New Jersey governor was riding high in 2011, and many Republicans clamored for him to seek the 2012 nomination. He declined, saying he wasn’t ready. Big mistake.

By 2016, he was ready but it was too late. His approval ratings were in a free fall and he was a bust on the national stage. He’s now out of politics.

Many New Yorkers, of course, think it crazy that Cuomo is considered presidential material at all. They’ve experienced the dark reality of his eight years in Albany — the job-killing taxes, the empire of waste and corruption spawned by his white-elephant boondoggles, his political dirty tricks and a weathervane approach to education and energy policies.

There’s also the weirdness factor, as reflected in his often-reclusive personality and cringe-inducing attempts at humor. He carries a permanent chip on his shoulder about class and ethnicity and even manages to create mystery about whether he’s married to Sandra Lee.

Yet the liberal view of him from 30,000 feet is distinctly better, and will be very appealing if he is re-elected. He would be a three-term winner in a large blue state with liberal accomplishments that party rivals can only dream about. And the Cuomo name still has magic, thanks to his late father.

Andrew Cuomo also offers a link to Dems’ more centrist past at a time when a left-wing fringe threatens to take the party over the socialist cliff. Though many leaders are attracted to or cowed by the radical movement, Cuomo proved that he had a winning answer to Nixon, a star of the movement.

Voter turnout among registered Dems was 24 percent, more than double the 10 percent of the 2014 primary, which should have been good for the insurgency. But Cuomo got more than 65 percent, up from 62 percent four years ago when he had two challengers.

“It was upstate. It was downstate, white, black, brown — it was across the board,” he boasted Friday.

A relentless fundraiser, he outspent Nixon by more than 10 to one, laying out $400,000 a day in the final stretch on television ads alone. Purists on the left hate him for accepting millions in corporate donations, but money helped him win, and isn’t that the goal?

Finally, Cuomo set himself up for a national run by treating Trump as if he, not Nixon, was his opponent. He attacked the president relentlessly and his promise to resist Washington was a central theme.

That helped goose the turnout, and the triangulation positions Cuomo as an alternative to both the far left and Trump.

He sounded those themes Friday and repeated his claim that he is a true progressive. “A progressive Democrat, a Democrat in New York state, these are not ivory tower academics, these are not pontificators, these are not people who live in the abstract or theoretical,” Cuomo insisted. “I am progressive and I delivered progressive results.”

He took a shot at Trump and the darling of the socialist movement, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who endorsed Nixon. Cuomo noted that he won her Queens congressional district by a huge margin. “How do you explain me winning that district by 36 percent?” he taunted reporters.

Nobody can expect smooth sailing to a presidential nomination. There could be 15 or more Dems seeking the job and some, like Senators Kamala Harris of California and Cory (Spartacus) Booker of New Jersey, will have the luxury of campaigning without governing responsibilities.

But Cuomo demonstrated in the Nixon race that having an actual record is a major asset against lightweight challengers. At the same time, he is shrewd enough to give ground when it’s to his advantage, as he did by adopting some Nixon positions even as he denounced her naïveté. Count on him to do the same on the national level.

Above all, count on him to be ruthless about finding and exploiting opponents’ weaknesses.

I once had a conversation with a top Cuomo associate about the governor’s instincts. “He has,” the associate said, “an unerring instinct for the smell of blood.”

He meant it as a compliment.

Curtain Prod

The New York Times acted honorably in correcting and re-editing an accusatory article that said the State Department spent more than $52,000 on curtains for an apartment used by UN Ambassador Nikki Haley. The correction noted the initial story, which used Haley’s name in the headline and carried a photo of her, “created an unfair impression about who was responsible” for the curtains because the decision was made by the Obama administration.

That crucial fact was in the initial story — yet the reporter and editors involved buried it and made it sound insignificant, as if Haley was guilty of a scandal.

Why did they shape the story that way? If the Times is serious about setting the record straight, it will find the answer and publish it.

My suspicion is that those involved saw the curtains as news only because the story would fit the Times’ anti-Trump agenda. The facts, headline and photo were arranged to serve that narrative.

The story, then, is a classic example of what happens when a newspaper becomes a partisan tool. Prejudice is baked into nearly every decision and the entire staff is expected to follow the party line.

Fixing that will take more than a single correction.

Casting a pall Manafort? Ha!

Paul Manafort’s guilty plea and cooperation deal with special counsel Robert Mueller is the end of President Trump — and me, too. At least that’s what a few readers predict.

Marland Townsend is one of them, exclaiming: “All of your articles defending Trump are about to come to a crashing halt! The walls are closing in on him! His days are numbered and no amount of propaganda can save him!”

Duly noted!!!