The appearance of Gov. Eliot Spitzer at a coffee sponsored by the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce Thursday morning was a missed opportunity by the governor, whose poll numbers are, to be charitable, anemic. In what can only be considered a pro-forma visit, Spitzer failed to do what he easily could have done - build his waning political support back up.

Nearly 200 business, education, government and not-for-profit leaders packed the room where Spitzer showed up almost 30 minutes late. They were hungry to hear about the governor's “Billion Dollar Fund For Upstate” (more about that in Friday's column) and may have been surprised that Spitzer did not give specifics about how it would impact places such as Auburn and Cayuga County.

While it would have been naive to believe that he would have come to town with an oversized cardboard presentation check that usually accompanies many from Albany on their forays into communities, it would have been nice to hear him talk specifics.

Yet, that may not have been the overriding piece taken away from the visit. Instead, the event showed a charming, smart and witty Spitzer not do what he could have done - enlist the help of local citizens to push what he considers his “Chapter 2” after last year's “From Day One” mantra.

Instead, what those in attendance got was what seemed to be a canned performance.

One city staff member may have said it best after the event when he dryly suggested that it almost sounded as if Spitzer asked his staff where he was and for a couple of salient historical facts to insert in paragraphs two and six of his speech.

The Democratic governor, who easily won Cayuga County in 2006, despite his political misfortunes of the last year, could have done more to charm the audience, which hadn't seen him in some time.

Spitzer seemed to want to get through his remarks and get on the road. While some believed that he would take questions, he said instead he wanted to have “one-on-one conversations.” They turned out to be a series of handshakes and photo ops as he made his way to the door.

It was a complete disappointment from the last time a Democratic governor appeared in Auburn, when nearly 20 years ago, Mario Cuomo munched local grapes at Cayuga Community College in a lengthy question-and-answer session with constituents.

The bottom line is that Spitzer had the chance to build grassroots support for not only his agenda, but his own political base, and he unfortunately blew it.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com