Former NY Governor George Pataki announced this week on MSNBC that he is going to announce soon whether he will announce his intentions to run for President.
Ho. Hum.
It seems like we hear this story once every 4 years from Pataki for the last three decades. And yet it goes nowhere.
One explanation is that Pataki may have no interest in running for President; he simply wants to get publicity to boost his law practice and business opportunities. But I believe the other reason these trial balloons go nowhere is that Pataki is a horrible public speaker. He is bland, boring, flat and uninteresting. I lived in New York State almost the entire time Pataki was governor and I cannot remember a single interesting thing (good or bad) that he’s ever said.
If you want the number one political job in the world, you simply have to be a great communicator (Yes, George W. Bush is the exception and if you have a dad who was President and can deliver the entire party establishment’s fundraising set to your campaign a year before the first primary vote is cast, you too can be a bad speaker and become President).
Pataki may make a fine addition to a board of directors for a mid-sized energy or healthcare company, but he is not ready for prime time in presidential politics.
Prediction: Pataki will announce a few more times that he will announce his presidential ambition. He will announce that he is exploring. He will announce that he has a huge demand from supporters and fundraisers to run. But we won’t actually see Pataki’s name on any GOP primary ballot next year because he is too lazy to ever learn basic public speaking skills.
TJ Walker is founder of Media Training Worldwide https://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com