President Obama Tells NY Gov. Paterson: Get Out Of The 2010 Election

OMG. President Obama has sent a message to NY Gov. David Paterson telling him to drop his plans to run for governor in 2010. Former Lt. Gov. Paterson became governor in 2008 after Eliot Spitzer resigned in a prostitution scandal.

President Obama has sent a request to Gov. David A. Paterson that he withdraw from the New York governor’s race, fearing that Mr. Paterson cannot recover from his dismal political standing, according to two senior administration officials and a New York Democratic operative with direct knowledge of the situation. 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.

Paterson has been very popular with the LGBT community thanks to his unwavering support for marriage equality, but his statewide approval ratings have barely been in the double-digits for the last year. His most grievous misstep, according to many, was his public snubbing of Caroline Kennedy during the search to replace Hillary Clinton in the Senate. And Kirsten Gillibrand was definitely not the candidate favored by the White House. This move by Obama is a defacto endorsement of NY Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who has not yet officially declared his intent to run. If Paterson obeys Obama's edict, we're probably looking at Giuliani vs. Cuomo for 2010.