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Remember Me?
The forlorn campaign of George Pataki:
A retired high school teacher, Raymond Harmacinski, began to praise Mr. Pataki’s record when a note of uncertainty crept into his voice.
“I followed you when — you weren’t governor when they hit the towers?” Mr. Harmacinski, 77, asked.
Mr. Pataki quickly assured the man that he had, in fact, been in office on Sept. 11, 2001. “I was,” he said. “I was governor then.”
Do you think Rudy Giuliani gets questions like that?
There are people in the public life of a nation you never forget. For good or for ill, they stamp themselves onto the public consciousness. Despite having served three terms as the chief executive of the second largest state in the union, George Pataki is not of those people. The 53rd governor of New York is the sort of fellow they use to fill out police line-ups.
Pataki’s 1994 upset victory over liberal lion Mario Cuomo had less to do with his own stellar virtues than with a remarkable series of well-timed endorsements. Senator Al D’Amato, newly-elected New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and shock-jock Howard Stern all plunked for Pataki. It seems likely that an animosity toward Cuomo — rather than an admiration for the former mayor of Peekskill — was the deciding factor.
Once in power, Pataki earned a modest record as a fiscal conservative. Otherwise, he drifted steadily leftward. The New York Times praised his health care reforms. Bloomberg heralded his staunched environmentalism. He is also openly pro-choice. It’s not a bad record really. The odd thing is that George Pataki insists on running as a Republican.
Did we mention he was governor during 9/11? I think we did.
In short, Pataki is the answer to a question that no one is asking in 2016. Between his leaden humor — the GOP “only has 147 candidates, so I decided to run.” — and his negative charisma field, the campaign has encountered a mixture of bewilderment and low grade mirth. Pataki’s candidacy presents the same question as does the farewell tour of a band everyone vaguely remember: Why bother?
The official rationale is that the former governor is “electable.” This assumes that the electorate of America in 2016 resembles the electorate of New York state in the 1990s. If anyone is making this case, please have them drop me a line the comments. Don’t let the tumble weeds roll through.
What we are left with is the sad knowledge that the Pataki campaign — more than most — is the vanity project of a single man. There is no great idea that George Pataki is identified with. Nothing in his record that would elicit strong emotions, either for or against. Watching him campaign is underwhelming. The impression is of an amiable septuagenarian who seems caught in traffic going to his granddaughter’s recital.
Listening to Ted Cruz or Rand Paul at full tilt, you see men fighting a crusade. Even that amiable old kook of a socialist Bernie Sanders has a certain quixotic quality you can’t help but admire. By contrast, George Pataki is campaigning so people will remember who the heck George Pataki was two decades ago. There is a basic human sadness about that fact.
It’s a standing cliché that politics is show business for ugly people. Think of the sort of people that show business attracts and you realize how biting a line that is. There are intelligent, decent, and mature people who go into both professions. They are to be commended. Then there are the desperate creatures that look as if they’re auditioning for the part of Peter Keating in a remake of The Fountainhead.
Not much separates George Pataki and Hillary Clinton in terms of policy. I doubt much separates them in terms of ambition. They are political beings that live in the limelight. The key difference is that one has a reasonable shot of becoming president.
Note to George: Next time around, marry a charming sociopath. It does wonders for your career.
Published in General
Nothing to add, very well written. You have to think only his family are supporting his run and I doubt even they are unanimous.
One of the horrifying pity thought experiments ingrained deep into my brain from a youth spent being a disaffected and gang-beat-bullied dork/geek/nerd is the idea of throwing a party and nobody coming.
I can tangibly feel the emotions that one would feel.
You remember that Ricochet Podcast where the guy from Second City was on? Late in it he asks Rob to talk to him about a project. It’s one of the saddest things I’ve ever heard. He’s asking on air because he’s desperate, and Rob knows it, and he knows it, and we all know it, but he’s asking anyway because Rob can’t turn him down on the air. Some day when I meet Mr. Long at a meetup I’m going to ask him for the end of that story. It’ll have to go un-recorded, because otherwise I can’t know that I’ll get an honest answer.
What I’m saying is, you managed to make me feel sorry for Pataki. Bravo; I didn’t think that was possible.
I’m even more of a cynic, after seeing the ridiculous number of candidates in the debate. I got the feeling that every Republican that approached the RNC and mumbled “I’m thinking about running . . . ” got an enthusiastic back-slap of approval and a little bump of campaign money, for the promise that when they leave the race they throw whatever support they garnered to Jeb.
Come to think of it, those first debates did resemble a police lineup.
Actually you are in error in your post. Mayor Guiliani famously did not endorse Pataki on that first election where he upset Mario Cuomo. He endorsed Cuomo and had to swallow his pride when Pataki won.
I would say there are differences from Pataki and Hillary on economics. Pataki was a fairly free market guy. Social issues, you’re mostly right. Pataki did get the death penalty passed in NY, and I assume he would still support it, even though it has never been used. I don’t know where Hillary stands on the death penalty but I assume she would be beholded to the far left. If I remember correctly I think Pataki also supported school choice, and Hillary would never do that.
Pataki was my governor and he was about as conservative as one could get for NY State. He was a good governor but I would not support him for president. Unless of course he got the nomination.
Well, he’s no Jim Gilmore.
Nobody’s no Jim Gilmore.
Pataki at least has a campaign website.
You guys beat me to it; I was going to say at least he put a beatdown on Gilmore.
I’m not sure. I’ve actually seen a bumper sticker for Gilmore. But it was from a distance, and it might have been faded.
I understand why some no-hopers run. Even the longest of long shots can sometimes at least get to stand in front of cheering crowds, and to some that evidently brings an adrenaline rush like nothing else. (To me, it would bring a burning desire to disappear beneath the platform.) It’s a big country, and one-half of 1% adds up to a lot of people.
But do Pataki and Gilmore even draw enough crowds to make noise?