Spitzer, who is Jewish, recognized he might need to widen the base of his support, so he asked the Minority Leader of the State Senate, David Paterson, who is Black, to run as his Lt. Governor.

Paterson was, according to a Washington Post piece by Alex MacGillis, born in Brooklyn and raised in Harlem, the son of a political heavyweight who was, himself, a State Senator, Deputy Mayor, and Secretary of State.

Paterson not only balanced Spitzer's upper-class background with a traditional neighborhood political heritage, but also balanced Spitzer's take-no-prisoners attitude toward the rest of the human race with a man whom even a political foe (again, according to the WashPost) called, "intelligent, charming, witty … and enjoys the goodwill of people in both parties."

Even allowing for the fact that the State Senator who used those glowing terms knew at that point that Spitzer was resigning and Paterson would ascend to the Governor's office on Monday, that is an impressive set of adjectives in the rough-and-tumble world of Albany, NY politics.

Former Congresswoman and Walter Mondale's choice for his Vice Presidential running mate in 1984, Geraldine Ferraro, pointed out in a speech that Barack Obama is Black saying: "If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," for which was forced to step down from the Hillary Rodham Clinton campaign for those remarks, a decision which I wholeheartedly endorse.

What she should have said was: "If Obama WERE a white man …"

It is that kind of grammatical error up with which I will not put.

Someone should point out to Ms. Ferraro that in addition to being Black, the new Governor New York is blind.

Let's see what she does with that.