Albany, NY – David Paterson, the current governor of New York, has a message for his successor: You’re doomed to fail.
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In a 70-minute interview with The Wall Street Journal, the governor cast himself as a scapegoat for the state’s problems, blamed an “organized smear campaign” for ruining his political career and pinned his inability to repair New York’s ailing finances on a dysfunctional budget process.
“Whether the governor is David Paterson or Rick Lazio or Andrew Cuomo or Superman, we don’t have a structure that empowers a single leader to get his or her state out of a major conflict,” said Mr. Paterson, who isn’t running in November. “It’s kind of like being in quicksand. You can move around a lot, but it just makes the problem worse.”
Without the power to declare a fiscal emergency and unilaterally freeze wages of state employees, Mr. Paterson contended New York governors are at the mercy of the Legislature.
“Mark my words, they are going to say it about the next governor. They’re going to try make the next governor’s personality, effectiveness or engagement—or where the next governor eats dinner—the issue.”
Mr. Paterson, whose administration has tried fruitlessly to pass a budget, accused lawmakers of using him as an excuse. “They have perpetuated this rumor that I’m waiting all year and don’t care,” he said. “Every week, I try to get them together and nobody wants to come. Then they turn around and actually try to pretend that it’s me who doesn’t want to have these meetings. It’s completely political.”
Democrats in Albany said they sympathized with Mr. Paterson—but only to an extent. “Right up until the last day that George Pataki was in office, he was the governor. No one doubted that. And with Gov. Paterson, it’s almost as if he’s already gone,” said Sen. Diane Savino, a Democrat from Staten Island.
“The executive in New York has a tremendous amount of power, but it requires political will and the desire to use it,” she said.
He makes it sound like its a new state comeon governor you’re a very nice person but you don’t have what it takes to govern “can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen” going around giving interviews blaming color,president Oboma,kennedi, repoblican etc is not the way to go sorry governor
He really is pathetic, isn’t he?
You know ‘Gov.’ Patterson, I am sick and tired of your sniveling, finger pointing ‘woe-is-me, the world is out to get me’ attitude. You failed at a job you were unprepared for and you don’t want to take responsibility. That’s not what NYS needs at a time like this.
I am glad you aren’t running again in November, because if you were, I would certainly be voting for a Republican for the first time in my life!
He happens to be right
He sounds hopeless and depressed. He needs to be evaluated for depression and treated.
99% of what any political leader accomplishes is due to how the public perceives him, and 1% is actual work. The public hates this governor, sees him as weak and consequently, nothing gets done. Put some semi-literate two-bit celebrity in the same office and ‘wow, what a difference!’. Bush II was elected because of his sentimental value vis-a-vis Bush I, and was a very powerful president in terms of accomplishments and changes (for better or worse), and Obama was elected because of his sentimental value vis-a-vis his race and is equally powerful in terms of accomplishments and changes. Patterson, well, people just don’t view the disabled as powerful, even though they would never admit it and neither the public or the other pol’s pay him any attention.
Hugh Carey suceeded. And things were far worse back then.
All I ever heard from Paterson was how bad the budget was but not doing enough to do something about it. Now today he still sits before us with the same doom prediction and still nothing done. Paterson you want to do something about the budget begin from the inside and eliminate all the waste that is going on in the state agencies ans start merging many agencies that are doing the same kinds of work. I just can’t wait for election time so I could vote for Cuomo whom I believe will do what is right for the people of the state.