And Gov. Paterson is oversensitive.

TR, Harry Truman, Gerald Ford: all were “accidental” executives. (HST not as much as the others; forboding about FDR’s health caused the Dem leadership to choose him as VP in 1944 as somebody who could step in if something befell Roosevelt, in ill health. Ford, too, was approved by Congress in 1973 to be VP with the tacit knowledge that Nixon could leave the White House before his term was up. But TR—another NY Governor—certainly was the surprising, accidental choice of GOP party leaders in 1900. They wanted to get him out of Albany, not knowing McKinley would be assassinated.)

Malcolm Wilson was an “accidental” governor. He waited 15 years to be an overnight success once Nelson resigned. I don’t think you’ll find records of Gov. Wilson complaining that citizens thought he was second-rate by having inherited the office.

Gov. Paterson could serve himself well by re-reading Irving Wallace’s “The Man”—or listening to the movie version, which made James Earl Jones’s film career.

On his own, could then-Sen. Paterson have been elected governor of New York?

pause

Yeah, I thought that would be your answer. ;>

He should ask former-Virginia governor Douglas Wilder for advice.

Wilder was elected on his own in a state where statues of Confederate heroes still abound. THAT was a real achievement.