All Over Albany

David Paterson's greatest hits

New York Now has put together an epic montage covering David Paterson's 34 months in office. It's all in there, from Paterson taking the oath of office and the legislature chanting "David, David, David!" -- to him asking "why me?" It's remarkable to watch his body language change over the course of the montage. He just seems beaten down by the end.

Paterson will also be appearing on New York Now tonight for another exit interview (7:30 pm on WMHT -- and Sunday at 11 pm).

The montage highlights some of the reasons we feel conflicted about David Paterson. On one hand, he was thrown into a job that even he probably never expected to have, sounded the alarm early about the state's fiscal crisis, kept the state solvent, took the initiative to get a lieutenant governor in place (and kept Pedro Espada from possibly being next in line for governor -- *shiver*), made a good pick for US Senator (KG), and basically stuck it to the legislature while it stalled on the budget.

On the other hand (and it's a big hand)... Paterson had a tendency to say one thing one day and something else the next, didn't necessarily surround himself with the best people, turned the selection of a new US Senator into a circus, seemingly ignored the guy he picked to help fix the state's fiscal situation, intervened in a case of alleged domestic violence involving a top aide, his administration tried to score free Yankees tickets, and he just seemed to generally be a scandal magnet. And that doesn't even cover all of it.

So long, Governor Paterson. It wasn't boring.