All Over Albany

Stumbling out of the gate

It seems like all of sudden everyone hates David Paterson. So, how'd this happen?

Well, like most overnight stories (of success or failure), it sounds like this one has been building for some time. From a story in yesterday's NYT (emphasis ours):

Not long after David A. Paterson became governor, he gathered his senior staff at a mountainside estate 30 miles from the capital to shape an agenda for his fledgling administration.

A former executive from the Dale Carnegie Institute was brought in, and gave the bewildered senior advisers promotional T-shirts and copies of his book, which featured advice like "Don't let your BlackBerry become a CrackBerry."

But the real surprise, said several people who attended, came when Mr. Paterson spoke on the second day. He seemed unfocused, even rambling, in a brief appearance, offering few clues about what he wanted to do as governor and leaving many staff members confused and frustrated.

We'd actually be OK with a few crackberry-addled staffers if it meant getting the state on the right track. If anything, crackberry addiction sounds more plausible than "late-filing syndrome."

Oh, yeah, one more thing: Paterson did give staffers the OK to go after Caroline Kennedy.