George Pataki, Former New York Governor, Won't Run For President

ALBANY, N.Y. -- Former New York Gov. George Pataki (pa-TAH'-kee) says he won't seek the Republican nomination for president.

The former three-term governor had been considering a run for months and had been trying to build support in the important primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire.

He said Friday he will continue to speak publicly about the need to get the national debt under control.

It is the third time Pataki declined to run for president after publicly exploring the possibility.

It would have been a tough road for Pataki, who supports abortion rights and other socially progressive issues. Political analysts have said he would have a difficult time winning the nomination through a GOP primary process dominated by more conservative voters.

Comments

[john rajah]

06:09 PM on 08/29/2011

We'll instead take a President Bachmann,President Perry,President Trump,President Guiliani,President Romney,Cain.......

[General Public]

03:11 AM on 08/28/2011

Oh, that's too bad. I lived through all 3 terms of George Pataki being governor of my state, and while he didn't really fix anything at all, and basically didn't deal with any problems such as the state budgets always being late and having deficits, and the upstate economy being terrible, instead passing all the problems on to future governors, at least the state still EXISTED when he left office and at least he didn't actively seek to destroy everything good that the state government had ever accomplished like so many current Teabagger Republican governors (Scott Walker, Rick Perry, Rick Scott, Chris Christie, John Kasich, etc.), so I guess that's an accomplishment... I mean the state university system still exists, we still have a state environmental agency that actually does stuff to protect the environment, the state still has a generous Medicaid program, etc. So by not having an agenda to completely destroy everything good that the state government had ever accomplished, I guess George Pataki is just too mainstream for today's Republican Party, which is dominated by radical extremists who want to stop government from ever doing anything that actually benefits people who need it. I mean, I never voted for the guy, but unlike with George W. Bush, I never got too upset about George Pataki winning elections, since he didn't really do much of anything. I mean the guy is even pro-choice, so he's certainly no Teabagger.