jade's Blurty

Political predictions
Political predictions

Prediction One: Everyone who knows anything about New York politics knows that Paterson has a mistress, and he got her a really important, really high paying state job that she never would have gotten without his help. My bet is that this and his other indiscretions will hit the fan before this year's election. Fun times.

Prediction Two: Every good governor needs to be prepared to be hated by the Legislature. They need to be able to say NO. This works well because then everyone else has a reason for things not going their way. For example, a huge interest group comes in begging for money. The Assembly likes to be able to say, "we are trying but the Governor will veto it." This doesn't work if the Governor won't veto it. Paterson won't say no. He wants to "work with the Legislature." He was in the Senate for like 30 years. This is bad. He never intended to become the Governor, and he's not cut out for it. He wanted to be Lt. because there's more money, very little responsibility, a higher profile, and because he'd be able to get his mistress and his friends a job.

The Assembly and the Senate are addicted to spending. Cumulatively, they want to increase spending about 7% during a RECESSION even though we have like a $5 BILLION deficit. Even NJ and CT are tightening their belts, but not NY. My bet is that Paterson won't have the balls to tell the Legislature no; we'll be screwed, and things will go down hill very quickly.