Resisting Obama, Paterson Vows to Seek Office

[cruzat]

So Obama is now dictating who runs for governor.

If Obama continues down the road he is going we just may see Karl Marx crawl from his grave and start shouting with joy.

Full story here /http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/nyregion/21paterson.html?_r=1&hp

Gov. David A. Paterson insisted on Sunday that he would continue his campaign for governor, despite urgings from the White House that he step aside for the good of the Democratic Party.

At a parade in Harlem, the governor refused to discuss his conversations with President Obama’s political team, which has made clear to Mr. Paterson in recent days that it has lost confidence in him and does not believe he can be elected next fall.

Asked how he would run as a Democrat without White House support, Mr. Paterson said, “I am running for governor right now. I have no idea — I am a candidate for governor.”

“I have had a number of different conversations with a number of different people,” he added. “They are confidential.”

Still, even as Mr. Paterson publicly vowed to continue, two prominent Democrats who had spoken to him over the weekend described him as mulling his options and open to the possibility of withdrawing from the race. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because the conversations were intended to be confidential.

News that the White House had involved itself in the governor’s contest in New York set off wide-ranging reaction on Sunday, and Mr. Paterson’s aides seemed shaken that the discussions with the White House had become public.

The plan to appeal to Mr. Paterson to step aside was proposed by the president’s political team and approved by Mr. Obama.

Some Democrats expressed anger at what they saw as heavy-handed tactics by the presidents political team.

But others, including two members of the state’s Congressional delegation, praised the move, saying something had to be done, given the governor’s potential drag on the ticket next fall.

“I think the president is trying to help, frankly, figure out a solution to a real political dilemma in the state,” said Representative Dan Maffei, a Democrat from the Syracuse area.

Said Representative Michael E. McMahon, a Staten Island Democrat, “As any down-ballot candidate would be, I am very concerned about the top of the ticket, and I am happy that the White House is as concerned as I am.”

The president is scheduled to visit upstate New York on Monday to deliver a speech at Hudson Valley Community College in Troy. The governor is planning to attend, along with Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, his potential rival in a primary fight.

New details emerged on Sunday of the White House’s recent communications with Mr. Paterson that underscored the poor relations between them, and the urgency with which the White House was moving.

Last Monday, when Mr. Obama came to Wall Street to deliver a speech on the financial industry, his administration did not invite Mr. Paterson, a conspicuous snub of a fellow Democrat in his own state.

Instead, the White House political director, Patrick Gaspard, met with Mr. Paterson that day and told him that the president had lost confidence in his ability to win the 2010 election, and especially to hold off former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who is weighing a run for governor, according to two Democratic operatives briefed on the conversation.

“It was very explicit,” said one of the operatives, who is based in New York and has close ties to the White House. “He said, ‘I am here at the direction of the president, and we have lost confidence in your ability to run for re-election and win, and we would strongly like you to reconsider. And if you decide to go ahead, you will not have our support.’ “

During the meeting, Mr. Paterson challenged the accuracy of recent public polls that have shown him losing badly in a faceoff with Mr. Giuliani, the operative said, and suggested it was too soon to know whether Mr. Giuliani would be a factor in the race.

Another Democratic operative briefed on the conversation described the message that Mr. Gaspard delivered as: “We want you to stand down. There is no path to success.”

Mr. Paterson was initially taken aback by the message and perplexed by the timing of the appeal, since Mr. Giuliani has indicated he will not decide whether to run until at least November, according to the operative.

Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Paterson declined to comment on the meeting.

The conversation was complicated by history, since Mr. Gaspard, a New York native, has crossed paths with Mr. Paterson before. Before joining the White House, Mr. Gaspard served as political director of 1199 S.E.I.U. United Healthcare Workers East, the giant union that battered Mr. Paterson with attack ads over budget cuts shortly after he took over from Gov. Eliot Spitzer last year. The union has also been close to Mr. Cuomo.

Representative Gregory W. Meeks, a close friend of the governor’s who has developed strong relations with the Obama administration, followed up after the meeting, reinforcing the message to Mr. Paterson later that week that the White House wanted him to consider dropping out.

Mr. Meeks had dinner on Friday with Mr. Paterson, State Senator John L. Sampson and Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. at a restaurant on Manhattan’s West Side.

During the dinner, Mr. Paterson indicated that he was prepared to accede to the White House’s desire that he not run, according to a person with direct knowledge of the conversation and who spoke on condition of anonymity because the discussion was intended to be private.

[somebody4]

I don't understand why the american people put up with alibama and his forty thieves, next he will be trying to rod pelosi,