There was a time back in the day when this announcement actually got me pretty excited, but with all due respect to a great man with a long and distinguished career, I have to wonder if the season has already passed. George Pataki is once again talking about a run for president.

Add George Pataki to the growing list of Republicans who are considering running for president in 2016.

The former, three-term New York governor told the New York Daily News in an interview published on Tuesday that he’s “very seriously” thinking about making a bid for the nation’s highest office.

Pataki also took a dig at President Obama, saying “When you look at the last six years, we have someone who may speak well but has never run anything” and pointed to his own experience running state government from 1995 to 2006.

The timing of this isn’t all that curious. The dark horse candidates – and let’s face it, George would be in that category – want to get out there before too many big names hop into the pool and freeze all the money from the big donors. But he also talked about a grab for the big brass ring in previous presidential election years.

Just as a required disclaimer, I’ve done some appearances with Pataki out on the campaign trail, had dinner with him a couple of times and always admired him. He’s a giant of a man (both physically and in his influence in New York) who has given much of his life to public service. He was a great governor and has many qualities worthy of admiration.

Unfortunately, Pataki also has some traits which have plagued him in the past when national politics is discussed, and nothing much has changed in the past decade either for the man personally or the demographics of the nation. George was a great fit for New York, but he will never get out from under the label of RINO, probably making both Mitt Romney and Chris Christie look like diehard Tea Party warriors in comparison. He will never attract the pro-life vote and there are a few other tidbits from his northeastern lineage which would cause primary problems for him with the conservative base.

Another factor here which is only fair to consider is precisely how serious Pataki is about running. Not to put too fine a point on this, but we’ve seen similar doubts raised in the past when discussing both Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump. (Why do these guys always seem to be New Yorkers?) Pataki runs a consulting firm, and has done so since shortly after finishing up his time as governor. And let’s be honest here… when you’re in that line of work, having a lot of people talking about you in the same sentence as “possible presidential bid” isn’t exactly bad for business. But I’ll take him at his word. The man has done his time and served his state and his nation and if he wants to run he should get out there and do it.