ALBANY — Gov. Paterson yesterday picked longtime Democratic operative Richard Fife to head his uphill effort to win election on his own next year.

Paterson said he was “thrilled” to add Fife — an adviser to President Obama’s 2008 New York campaign and to former state Comptroller Carl McCall’s ill-fated 2002 gubernatorial bid — to his “growing campaign team.”

A veteran Democrat, however, quipped, “Richie just signed on as the captain of the Titanic with one difference: he knows in advance that there are icebergs ahead.”