New Yorker for President?
Outgoing New York governor George Pataki is visiting New Hampshire and Iowa and otherwise “weighing his options” vis-a-vis a 2008 presidential bid (via Taegan Goddard).
With Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton, and Michael Bloomberg already leaning toward running, it would be one crowded field of New Yorkers vying for the White House. I guess they figure if you can make it there you can make it anywhere but they may well wind up splitting the vote and ensuring a non-New Yorker wins.
But, if we assume Giuliani and Clinton get their respective party nominations, and Bloomberg runs as an independent, that sort of guarantees a New Yorker will win the election 🙂
Mark,
You know, conspiracy theories have been built on less. Of course, you have to ask the question if Hillary is really a New Yorker or just a carpet bagger. But hey, its been a while. Nixon purported to be from New York, though he wasn’t born there. Likewise Eisenhower. FDR was the last president to both claim New York as their home state and to have been born there. And before that Teddy hit the double for New York.
What would be amusing to me about this match up is that the main reason that the right would consider Rudy is his strong support for the war. The main reason the left would oppose Hillary is here tepid support for the war.
I thought Nixon always claimed to be a Californian?
John,
For my comment, I am just assuming that Hillary is a New Yorker. If New Yorkers haven’t bought the carpetbagger argument, no sense in rehashing it.
By the way, if Giuliani does get the GOP nod, I think that will result in Bloomberg not making a run (assuming he is even that serious about it). Bloomberg only runs if someone not named Giuliani wins the GOP nomination…
I wish I could find a more recent poll, but Pataki had a 33%-55% approval-disapproval in his own state as of May. I think nationwide his approval rating is “Who?” No one here in New York knows why he’s running. He’s utterly delusional.
Steve: That’s my sense as well. On the other hand, the election is nearly two years away. At this point in 1974, nobody outside Georgia had heard of Jimmy Carter. Bill Clinton was not exactly a household name in 1990, either.
James,
I’m going off the information represented here.
I found the explanation here. ‘Richard Nixon’s official state of residence was New York, not California. He had moved to New York City to practice law after his loss in the 1962 California gubernatorial race.’
Interesting. Well, I guess that makes sense–if you’re living and working in New York, you can certainly claim that as your residence if you want.