Obama Requests That Paterson Drop New York Campaign at NYT. Looks like one certain president believes one certain governor is a party pooper for one certain Democratic party in New York state.
The move against a sitting Democratic governor represents an extraordinary intervention into a state political race by the president, and is a delicate one, given that Mr. Paterson is one of only two African-American governors in the nation.
But Mr. Obama’s political team and other party leaders have grown increasingly worried that the governor’s unpopularity could drag down Democratic members of Congress in New York, as well as the Democratic-controlled Legislature, in next fall’s election.
The long and the short of it is that Paterson’s performance approval has been steadily dwindling down to 30 per cent, in contrast to Democrat Attorney General Andrew Cuomo’s 74 per cent approval. Cuomo has been thinking about tossing his hat into the ring. So has Republican Rudy Giuliani, who has stirred the New York waters, and could catapult a critical number of tepid Republican voters into a spirited race.
Unable to keep from meddling, Obama personally okayed the decision first presented by unnamed political advisers, to ask Paterson to clear himself out of the picture. Backroom politics in Washington, D.C., to clear the field in a state governor’s race? Paterson goes under the bus.
Just another attempt by the current administration to feed it’s political power ego by interposing itself in a political process, and annoint its chosen one. Seemingly similar to the way the DNC tilted the playing field to Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton in June 2008.
“Bus. Turbo Cruiser II.”
Image courtesy of http://www.newsweek.com/id/124292.
Update.
UPDATE 1-New York Governor Paterson says he’s still running. Reuters.
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