I've been saying this for weeks on the podcast - David Paterson is shrewder than people give him credit for, and he may well be poised to be the ultimate comeback kid. Either way, NY Magazine says we're in for a heaping helping of weirdness this year.

"I didn't know a lot about myself until I'd come through this last year--the most difficult conflicts I've faced, at least in government," Paterson tells me one recent afternoon as we ride through Manhattan in the back of a state-owned SUV.

His hard-won self-knowledge, though, remains mixed with a penchant for unpredictability. Paterson's past three months as governor have been his best. He has shown spine by introducing a comprehensive Albany ethics-reform package and withholding state payments to keep New York out of bankruptcy. Yet every step forward is followed by another one back. Paterson's ethics push alienated some of his few remaining supporters. Less than a day after delivering a forceful State of the State speech declaring an end to irresponsible state spending, the governor equivocated, telling a radio interviewer he should be judged on the goals he sets, not whether he accomplishes them. He mounted a belated public drive for $700 million in federal "Race to the Top" school funding only to be outmaneuvered by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and the teachers union, who wanted to clamp down on charter schools.

As Paterson has slowly progressed as governor, projecting leadership though still struggling to assert his will on crucial issues, the personal and political toll on him has been striking: A man who only two years ago was one of the most popular in Albany is now reviled by his former colleagues. Those are good enemies to have, but one result of Paterson's calamitous time in office is that he has become more isolated, trusting an ever-smaller cadre of aides even as he's desperately in need of allies. The day after Paterson's energetic Jackson-lunch speech, his latest campaign filing showed a paltry $3 million in the bank, a war chest dwarfed by his putative rival's $16 million. Calls by state Democratic politicians and union leaders are mounting for him to bow out of this year's governor's race in favor of Cuomo. Paterson's campaign staff, already skeletal, took another hit two weeks ago when its Washington-based spokeswoman quit.