Why Obama Is Pulling the Rug Out from Under Paterson - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Why Obama Is Pulling the Rug Out from Under Paterson
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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?

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