Governor Paterson doesn't seem to be taking quite the shellacking he was receiving from the media a month ago, but his poll numbers continue to bottom out. The latest poll released today by Siena College shows the public's approval of the governor's job performance now below twenty percent.

Two-thirds of New Yorkers now say that they'd prefer "someone else" when it comes to their voting plans for 2010. And when put next to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, the someone else that who has been drawing the most attention over the last few months, Paterson trails him in a hypothetical race now with 17 percent support to Cuomo's 67 percent before undecideds. A spokesman for the Siena poll says, "The Governor should be grateful he does not have to face the voters anytime soon."

The continuing decline of his numbers across the board have to be disappointing for Paterson, who has been trying to pull his administration together in the wake of the Senate replacement downfall that occurred early in the year. Paterson did a fair amount of staff upheaval over the last month, the most significant change possibly coming in the form of the return of his former top adviser, Charles O'Byrne (albeit now as a volunteer).

If there is any question on just how much the governor values the presence of O'Byrne, it was made abundantly clear over the weekend at O'Byrne's 50th birthday party. Ben Smith of Politico spotted a letter on the wall from Paterson to O'Byrne that seems like it may have been inspired by the release of I Love You, Man. It read:

Dear Charles,

In half a century, greater than half a life lived, bred-in-the-bone prodigious talent ceaselessly cultivated, not flashed but sustained through a course varied in path but common with unsurprising success, a Renaissance man born for every era, a midwife of opportunity to unseen numbers, the seat of superlatives, taking to the oars to better the wind on the banks of the crimson sea, calming the tide beneath and below, bridging the fault between knowledge and life, building the bridge between time and generations, seeding consistent bloom in Morningside Heights, razing the bonds of idle minds, fearless bastion of pride, never looking back at the wake of night, sowing light at dawn and saying to life, “yes I will."

Our eyes and minds may drift from the sun, but it is always there, and without it we are lost. The devoted acts carried forth through your inimintable drive and enigmatic gifts have revealed an even more magnificent heart incapable of denial from even the upmost reaches of your illumination.

[Signed]

David Paterson

The party where the letter was hung sounds like quite the affair. On top of political big shots like Paterson, Alfonse D'Amato, David Dinkins and the glittery shoe-wearing Speaker Christine Quinn, also in attendance was "What if God Was One of Us?" singer Joan Osborne.