Criticizing President Obama’s intervention into the New York governor’s race, former Republican Gov. George E. Pataki said that “everyone’s decision to run for office is a very personal decision.”

“You have to run because not just you think you can win the race but because you have the ideas and the vision,” he said on a conference call hosted Monday by the Republican National Committee. “That’s what the decision should be based on, not on poll numbers.”

Pataki was talking about New York Gov. David A. Paterson, whom White House aides reportedly urged to step aside last week, but he could have just as easily been talking about himself.

He did not deny Monday that he is mulling the possibility of getting back into politics, most likely a Senate race vs. Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand.