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Paterson Told Not To Call Critics Racist Or Sweat The Polls
By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 25, 2009
Modified Aug 25, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Aug 25, 2009
Modified Aug 25, 2009
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After Governor Paterson has accused the media of racism as it details his political problems, more and more people are telling Paterson to stop. First it was President Obama—of course Paterson didn't pay any heed to that, later saying, "Part of what I feel is that one very successful minority is permissible, but when you see too many success stories, then some people get nervous,"—and other politicians and commentators. Now it's former NYC mayor David Dinkins, who says, "Definitely he should get off the racist thing. Right or wrong, it’s a fight you sure can’t win."
Paterson said last week there's an "orchestrated" attack on him in the press and lamented that America is not in a "post-racial period." Dinkins, who has known Paterson's family for decades, tells the NY Times, "I don’t think he means they’re picking on him because he is black. I suspect he more means, were he not black — and maybe it’s pretty hard to make the distinction — those kind of comments would not have been made," explaining that, "One is a very positive effort to attack, to demean. The other is more an analysis after the fact."
Mayor Bloomberg weighed in with some thoughts about Paterson's troubles—but didn't touch the race issue: "What the governor's got to do is work as hard as he can, not worry about the polls. Not worry about his political career in the future. He's got roughly 14 months left to go. If I were him, I would do what he is doing, trying to be the best governor that he can."
Still, the polls show that Attorney General Andrew Cuomo leads Paterson 65% to 23% if they were to vie for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Cuomo's favorability is 70% while Paterson's is 14%.
Tagged
andrew cuomo
david dinkins
election 2010
governor paterson
media
post-racial period
race card
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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