President Barack Obama has taken the unprecedented step of trying
to persuade New York Gov. David Paterson not to seek election to
a full term in his own right. The conventional wisdom is that
Obama fears that Paterson's unpopularity will drag down the rest
of the Democratic ticket in New York. But New York Post
columnist Frederic Dicker goes further: he
argues that Obama is worried about the political revival of
Rudy Giuliani.
Giuliani rose to prominence by taking out New York City's first
black mayor after the public grew dissatisfied with the
incumbent. Polls show him poised to defeat New York's first black
governor under at least roughly comparable circumstances. Dicker
suggests that Obama might be concerned he'll do the same to the
first black president.
Lawrence Auster disagrees.
I also have my doubts. If Obama's concerns truly ran along these
lines, why would he not similarly undermine Massachusetts Gov.
Deval Patrick, whose rise and appeal to voters is much more
similar to Obama's than Paterson's? I suppose Dicker would argue
that neither Charlie Baker nor Christy Mihos -- much less
Tim Cahill -- pose a Giuliani-style threat to Obama in 2012.
But how much of a threat can Giuliani really pose if he imploded
after a year atop the national polls, with memories of his
mayoralty and 9/11 leadership still at least somewhat fresh,
after a stint as governor that will be too brief too allow him to
accomplish much of anything before running for president?
