Taking the advice of President Barack Obama, New York Governor David Paterson will abandon his longshot candidacy for election.

New York's first black governor, Paterson has become a laughingstock in political circles and now speculation will move toward whether he will resign or will suffer through several more months having everything he does criticized in newspaper opinion columns, parodied on late night comedy shows and questioned by constituents.

Paterson should probably give it up now, save his state pension and take a lobbying gig with a firm after a sufficient cooling off period. In political terms, Paterson is radioactive and needs some time for the toxicity to wear off.

The latest scandal to rock Paterson's administration questions his actions in a domestic abuse episode involving a chief aide, David Johnson. Johnson was accused of choking and beating a female associate and then preventing her from calling for help.

In court, the woman said state police officers harassed her to drop the case against Johnson. Investigators are checking if Paterson, in a phone call to her, also pressured her to drop the charges against his friend.

The scandal has pushed Paterson's criminal justice advisor, Denise O'Donnell, to resign, saying she couldn't work for the governor with such a large ethical cloud over his head.

It's just the latest controversy for Paterson who never really got a fair shot from the start.

Just a day after taking office from the sex scandal-plagued Governor Eliot Spitzer, Paterson announced that he and his wife had both had affairs during their marriage.

It was a risky move. On one hand, Paterson's announcement neutralized any political enemies who were thinking of blackmailing him or his wife with stories about their mutual philandering.

But it also gave the hyper-aggressive Albany statehouse reporters something to chase. Like blood in the water for sharks, the announcement pushed reporters to look for more stories to discredit Paterson.

And they found them.

Not much later, "Saturday Night Live" did a cruelly funny parody on the legally blind lawmaker, complete with images of him bumping in to furniture and trying to read charts upside down. Now Paterson was a laughing stock of the national variety. Ouch!

Then came the worst economic crisis to hit the state in 40 years. Paterson provided little to no leadership as state officials bickered, his poll numbers hit historic lows and even President Barack Obama visited the state to ask Paterson not to run for reelection.

At that point, Paterson hit the zone of no return. That means that anyone could say anything about him, and whether it was true or not, a significant portion of the electorate would believe it. Once there, a politician is done for.

Paterson is done for.