No Fourth Term for Pataki

George Pataki will announce later today that he will forego a run for a fourth term as governor of New York, the NYT reports. I said waaaay back in March that this was a smart move on his part, and I stand by that today. In that post, I concluded by saying:

"The time has come for Governor Pataki to end his gubernatorial career: he should announce, and soon, that he will not seek reelection in 2006. Such a move would allow him to finish his current term out from under the specter of political posturing, and also gives the state Republican party time to find and field another, more appropriate candidate to run against Spitzer next year. Of course, rumblings continue to circulate of a Pataki presidential bid in 2008, and vacating the governor's chair would give Pataki a chance to lay the groundwork for that campaign. Let's just hope if he does start running in the White House derby, Pataki remembers he's a moderate."

Here's hoping. While the governor would be far from my first choice for 2008, if he becomes the centrist GOP standard-bearer (through whatever quirky twists of the political universe it would take to make that happen), I'll back him. The party could (and probably will) do much worse.