Metro

‘Dead meat’ Dave will quit early: Dem

Gov. Paterson (right) and his possible replacement, Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch

ONE of the state’s most prominent Demo crats predicted yes terday that Gov. Paterson will resign before his term ends next year — for a higher-paying job with a brighter future.

The Democrat, who has frequent contact with the governor, said he expected newly legitimized Lt. Gov. Richard Ravitch to succeed the beleaguered Paterson, perhaps as soon as early spring.

“I think the governor will decide that he’s not going to run,” said the Democrat, citing the crushing impact of President Obama’s action last week signaling that he wanted someone other than Paterson to campaign for governor next year.

“I think he’s going to look around, find himself something he would like to do, and when he does, I think he’ll leave,” said the Democrat, who has ties to the White House.

Several Democrats said last week that Paterson, a Columbia University and Hofstra Law School graduate who flunked the bar exam, has spoken to friends about an academic “think tank” position or a high-level federal or private-sector job.

The prominent Democrat — who is not close to Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, a likely gubernatorial contender — dismissed any notion that Paterson could recover from Obama’s snub.

Things look so grim for Paterson that high-level Democrats were using such words and expressions as “finished,” “dead meat,” and “not among the political living” to describe the governor by week’s end.

Some close to Paterson insisted the governor was “in denial,” to use the words of one, and his bizarre claim yesterday on “Meet the Press” that the president hadn’t told him to get out appeared to bear that out.

“It was a pathetic performance; it’s like he’s not willing to face the fact that he’s finished,” said a longtime Paterson backer.

Paterson’s low poll numbers and rejection by Obama are affecting his ability to govern.

Last week’s “leaders meeting” called by Paterson to address the $2.1 billion-plus budget deficit went nowhere, and his announced plans to have the Legislature meet within days to cut spending have been rejected by key lawmakers.

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Richard Fife, Paterson’s newly named “campaign manager,” is blaming the governor’s record-low job-approval rating of about 18 percent on the national recession and not the governor’s own widely recognized bungling — as in Caroline Kennedy, a 9 percent spending hike, and $8 billion in new taxes.

“Governors across the country have low polls numbers, and Gov. Paterson is no exception,” Fife wrote last week in a fund-raising letter e-mail to potential contributors.

Fife contended that Paterson, who became governor in March 2008 after Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace, hadn’t had enough time to fully “introduce himself” to the public, which he said he’d be able to do in a campaign next year.

fredric.dicker@nypost.com