as opposed to the Dumb leading the blind, I don't mind the opposite

Governor Paterson, the embattled head of New York State has won me over. It's been quite a roller-coaster ride for him after he took over from Client #9 a few years ago from his initial rousing speech to the state senate to the dogging he's gotten for being too cozy with the Albany Legislators to his inaction for the first part of his term.


Yesterday during his State of the State address, he took these same lawmakers to task to try to cut the huge budget deficits projected for the State in 2010 and beyond. The irony of course is that the guy who was supposed to be the reformer (Spitzer) couldn’t do it while the guy who has been in bed with all these guys is at least giving it a fair college try. The cuts are going to have to come and they are going to have to be painful and they will hit everybody and everything from the MTA to Schools and Parks but hopefully they will mostly come from the pet-projects so near-and-dear to the Albany elite. The NY Times has been running an expose on the corruption in what they call the ‘failed state’ and reading it feels like you are reading a novel or the script to a movie.. The difference is that in a movie you know the other shoe will eventually drop while you are not nearly so sure about that in this case.

But TOR is now ready to endorse Paterson for another term which 6 months ago seemed about as likely as Spitzer getting anointed the next Pope but he is proving to be less of the same and more of the new.  We know his approval rating which has already plummeted into the 20's will probably not recover in time for the next election and maybe with no more politican debts to pay he'll rip the system apart by the corrupt hairs on it's back but I hope the tough talk can lead to tough action..

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