Sources familiar with President Obama’s shocking effort to force Paterson out of the 2010 elections told The Post yesterday that the governor’s rant last month about racial bias in the media spurred the move.

“If there’s one thing that sealed the governor’s fate, it was the racial comments, which is just what the president doesn’t need,” said a prominent New York Democrat. “It was a stupid statement. It wasn’t true, it damaged the president, and the governor’s paying the price for it now.”