Alternate headline: 12 comments or bust.  USA Today reports today that another Republican may yet enter the presidential nomination sweepstakes, another governor from one of the most populous states in the nation who won multiple terms.  No, it’s not Arnold Schwarzenegger:

Former New York governor George Pataki is “strongly considering” joining the field and could make an announcement as early next week, according to a report citing unnamed sources by New York 1, the 24-hour cable news channel.

Pataki served three terms in Albany from 1995 to 2006. Pataki traveled to New Hampshire this spring with his advocacy group, No American Debt, which ran ads in the Granite State and Iowa criticizing President Obama’s handling of the U.S. debt.

Pataki faces an uphill climb, Catalina Camia writes, in large part because … no one really remembers who he is:

Unlike some of the Republicans who are undecided and frequently mentioned as potential candidates — such as former Alaska governor Sarah Palin — Pataki is little known to key voters in the early primary and caucus states. Candidates who have been running for awhile, such as Mitt Romney, also have the political infrastructure in place to raise the campaign cash needed for a national campaign.

Those who do remember Pataki aren’t likely to be too excited by him, either.  Pataki won three terms in New York by being a center-right governor in practice, which is the kind of Republican who can win in New York.  In an era where Tim Pawlenty is too moderate in tone to capture the imagination of Republican primary voters, Pataki is less likely than Jon Huntsman to do so, too.  In both tone and policy, Pataki makes Pawlenty look like a grass-roots Tea Party leader.

Frankly, Rudy Giuliani has a better shot at winning a primary than Pataki, and it’s been ten years since Giuliani has held any elective office.  The only states for which Pataki could possibly compete would be New Hampshire and Michigan, where Mitt Romney already represents the northeastern Republican establishment.  Pataki would have no chance in grassroots Iowa, southern-conservative South Carolina, or Florida.  He’d also enter the race at a massive organizing and fundraising disadvantage after having let the entire summer go by.  He can’t even argue that he’d carry his home state, which may be souring on Obama but isn’t likely to back a Republican challenger, even if it’s Pataki.

In short, the only argument for a Pataki announcement would be to get it over with.