David Paterson: Un-Politician With a Sufferer's Heart, Who Was (Yes) Born in Brooklyn

I grew up in the household of an elected official and came to detest the meanness and insincerity that I saw in politics. I've often said it was dislike of the political game that drove me into journalism.

Now to the man of the moment.

David Paterson also grew up in a politician's home - his dad being ex New York Secretary of State and ex New York City Deputy Mayor Basil Paterson.

But I always thought from my few and brief encounters with him that David Paterson, like many writers, had a gentility and a thoughtfulness that made the wheeling and dealing of political life a poor fit.

Sure enough he climbed the political ladder, first as senator and then as lieutenant governor and now . . . well, as of this writing it seems possible, if not likely, that David Paterson will be the next governor of the State of New York, albeit acting.

And it's so fitting in this time of leaps into a new age of politics - as seen in the candidacy especially of one Barack Obama - that someone like David Paterson should rise as high in New York State as he has.

David Paterson is the opposite of the steely, double talking politicians many of us have come to know and dislike.

Recall that, a year and a half ago, as embarrassing news circulated that Gov. Eliot Spitzer had turned state police loose on Sen. Joseph Bruno, in a dirty abuse of power (this said by one who has no love whatsoever for shady Bruno's politics, David Paterson fainted on a plane as he traveled with the governor.

It is not a stretch to conclude that Lt. Gov. Paterson was reacting then to an inner discomfort that others might have been able to talk about more openly, a pain and a shame at the alleged behavior of his patron and boss, Spitzer.

That said, I have also sensed a seething unpleasantness in David Paterson over his (apparently forced) endorsement of Hillary Clinton over Barack Obama.

The disappointment with himself (of having to go along with the party bosses like Spitzer, Harlem Congressman Charles Rangel and others) could seen in Paterson's face, I thought, as he stood with others a couple of months ago behind the Rev. Calvin Butts, pastor of Abyssinian Baptist Church, when Butts endorsed Clinton.

Paterson has even joked about his embarrassment as he had to tell residents of Harlem why he was not with Obama. (see an earlier post.)

If he rises to be the governor, okay an acting one, it might be hoped that the power of that office will embolden David Paterson to let his inner voices speak to him more boldly and loudly, and he will allow himself to entertain them and give them their due respect.

[We have to say here that it means something, too, in a silent kind of way, that David P. was born in Brooklyn, Borough of Kings, soft ones and hard ones.

Also, David P. has had kind words to say to me about my grandfather (Bert Baker), rest his beloved soul, who was in the State Assembly in the 1960s when David P. used to visit there with his father.]

Comments

[Richard Rodriguez]

That was one of the most exciting swearing-in ceremonies I've ever seen. I have a feeling he's going to do some amazing things in office.

[Ron]

I always liked that phrase about the closing and opening doors.

Re the question, I recall that even in the final tally (questionable as that even may be) Clinton won in Harlem.

And as for a noted hesitancy of some of Clinton's backers in Harlem and elsewhere, I've thought (like a pondering psychologist) that Charlie Rangel's recent hospitalization may have been, in large part, a result of heavy stress from the same.

A thought.

Ron

[Richard A. Rodriguez]

As one door closes, another one opens.

I wonder if he'll use any of that superdelagate power to reconsider his pressured endorsement? In the NYT last month he said, “...with Barack Obama doing as well, I would be playing games if I didn’t say I don’t feel some anxiety from it.”

I haven't been able to find any information (as of late) on the official count from Harlem's 94th Election District. Are they still sorting that out?