Put-Upon Paterson Punted?

The big political story this morning is a NY Times report that President Obama, as head of the Democratic Party, has asked embattled and highly unpopular NY Democratic Gov. David Paterson not to run for re-election next year, a governor so unpopular that the White House wants him to announce his lame duck status now because Paterson may damage the party's statewide chances this year to boot.

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.

“Is there concern about the situation in New York? Absolutely,” the second administration official said Saturday evening. “Has that concern been conveyed to the governor? Yes.”

The administration officials and the Democratic operative spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions with the governor were intended to be confidential.

The president’s request was conveyed to the Mr. Paterson by Representative Gregory W. Meeks, a Queens Democrat, who has developed a strong relationship with the Obama administration, they 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.

Mr. Paterson and his aides did not respond to repeated requests for comment Saturday. Mr. Paterson arrived on Long Island Saturday evening to attend a dinner, but walked hurriedly past a reporter who tried to ask him about the White House request.

An aide to Mr. Meeks said the congressman could not be reached Saturday.

“The message the White House wanted to send — that it wants Paterson to step aside — was delivered,” said the Democratic operative,, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussions were intended to be confidential. “He is resistant.”

The leak basically assures that Paterson will not go quietly, because he's been made to look like an idiot publicly. It also makes the Obama administration look almost Bush-like in its ham-handedness of the situation. Paterson's latest numbers look like Bush's numbers at the end of his term, his job approval rating is in the low to mid 20's at best, and it hasn't helped that Paterson has basically screwed up everything he's touched, from Wall Street to appointing Hillary's replacement in the Senate to botching the state's budget. Even Ahnold has a slightly higher approval rating than this guy among embattled Governors. In a state that was hoping for Hope and Change, they got a mildly incompetent surprise centrist who's backing Wall Street, not Main Street.

Still, there's no way this leak helps Obama or Paterson, so you knew our "liberal media" was going to weigh in on it. I wonder who will call Obama a Machiavellian fascist dictator first?