Former New York Governor George Pataki has ended the suspense and announced that he is suspending his campaign to be the GOP nominee for president. Pataki announced his candidacy back in May, evoking Teddy Roosevelt as his model. He pledged to reduce taxes on manufacturers, cure cancer and Alzheimers (I am not making that up), and a more muscular US foreign policy. He was sort of the big government, socially liberal, technocrat that the Republican parties in the Middle Atlantic states and the Northeast churn our by the thousand. This was his video introducing himself and laying out his candidacy.

In 2012, he might have been noticed. In the climate of 2016, his ideal of making government work better and just being nice to everyone never quite gained traction.

As you notice, Pataki’s polling is represented by the bright yellow line that starts at 0%, sort of bumps along at 0% for 6 months, and finishes out today at, well, 0%.

A few years ago I visited Utica, NY, enroute to somewhere else. I stayed at Hotel Utica, a magnificent restored old hotel, and while on my way to my room I noticed this:

“Wow,” I thought. “This is so neat. They’ve finally put him where he can do no harm.” Much to my dismay I found that this was merely a commemorative plaque on his favorite room when he stayed at the hotel. Maybe now they can haul him off to Utica, stuff him in that room, and this time, for Heaven’s sake, bring a nail gun.

Image credit: DonkeyHotey via Flickr Creative Commons