Barack Obama’s hubris has no bounds. He has stopped the sea from rising, healed the earth, and now, he wants to tell the New York Democratic party whom they can run in their gubernatorial election.
The decision to ask Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by political advisers to Mr. Obama, but approved by the president himself, one of the administration officials said.
[…] 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.
Time was, when a party governor was in trouble, the president and the national party did all they could to help get him back on top. When did it become the usual thing to abandon a party member who paid enough dues to rise to Lt. Governor and then Governor? Oh, sure, he pissed off Obama with his racism speech, but still—toxic is as toxic does. Obama’s administration is filled with people who blame racism for everything.
I’d like to know if this is all there is to it, or is it payback to Hillary for not splitting the Dems in two last year? Rumor has it that she’s thinking of dropping out as Secretary of State to run for governor. That would fit.
Of course, the real question is, will David Paterson drop out? He does seem like an ornery sort who follows his own mind.
You will be able to know Hillary’s intentions to run for Governor of New York if she stops “trash-talking” to Israel. She will need the Jewish vote, so she’ll have to backtrack most of her statements since becoming Secretary of State (total freeze on settlements, etc.).
If she doesn’t, guaranteed she’s staying put.
I assume no one is surprised. Obama has a habit of tossing under the bus whoever becomes an encumbrance. He did it with his own grandmother. (Falsely, too; in his book he relates her being afraid of a particular black man who had been bothering her, not black men generally. But it helped him avoid disavowing Rev. Wright to use his grandmother as an example of a racist he stuck with.) Ayers he worked closely with for many years but he became just some guy from around the neighborhood. And so forth. I can’t, however, say he threw Israel under the bus because it is very clear from his associations, his history, and his views on world politics that he never supported Israel much in the first place.
Now, I wonder if the president were white and made the same demand of Gov. Patrick, how this would be handled. OK, I don’t really wonder.
Given who’s he’s dealing with, I’ve got a sawbuck that says Patterson will be receiving dead fishes wrapped in a copy of the New York state constition in 3…2…1…
I don’t think Hillary would run for Governor right now – she can’t become Governor and quit a year later to run for President, and with Obama weak, she needs to hang on as SoS until she can find something to blow up as a wedge issue with him, so she can run from the center on Foreign Policy. (Whatever half-assed healthcare bill gets passed will give any Democrat who wants to the chance to run from either the left or the center on domestic issues.)
Odd—President Obama does not want Gov. Paterson to run for reelection, but he campaigns for Sen. Arlen Specter to run in Pennsylvania. This seems a trifle inconsistent.
L’shana Tova,
Eric Jablow (not the same as Eric J.)
He needs Specter to vote for his pernicious domestic policy bills his malevolent and ruinous policies in foreign and defense affairs. He’s laying down markers for Specter who will be expected to come through for him in the future. Now that he’s a Democrat Specter will be expected to follow the lead of the First Lord of the Admiralty in Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore:
“I always voted at my party’s call,
“and I never thought of thinking for myself at all.”