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Politics of Hope, Checking in on Obama's role model (Deval Patrick)
Weekly Standard ^ | 04/01/2008 | Dean Barnett

Posted on 04/01/2008 2:15:44 PM PDT by K-oneTexas

Politics of Hope Checking in on Obama's role model. by Dean Barnett

WITH BARACK OBAMA LIKELY headed to the Democratic nomination, it's time again to check in on Obama's secret-sharer of rhetoric and other political stylings, Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick. As a neophyte politician, Patrick rode a wave of hope into Beacon Hill's corner office, just as Obama is trying to do on a national level.

When we last left the Patrick story some six weeks ago, Patrick's popularity was plummeting, his legislative agenda lay in ruin, and he was in the process of redefining the phrase "ineffective executive" for generations to come. Since then, believe it or not, things have only gotten worse for the Commonwealth's beleaguered regent.

Last week, Patrick's signature legislative initiative bit the dust in humiliating fashion as the Massachusetts House defeated his proposed bill for three resort casinos by the not exactly nail-biting margin of 108-46. The fact that Patrick's own party controls roughly 80 percent of the legislature compounded the loss's embarrassment. But in Patrick's defense, the rout of the bill wasn't nearly as embarrassing as the fact that something so shabby as state sponsored casino gambling had become the signature issue of a man who ran on "hope."

The magnitude of the trouncing indicates how well Patrick has made friends and influenced people on Beacon Hill. Patrick and his minions were quick to blame House Speaker Sal DiMasi for the debacle, accusing the Speaker of engaging in ghastly politics-of-yesterday techniques like arm twisting.

DiMasi is a character. Talking like an extra from The Departed, he seems like he's been around forever on Beacon Hill cutting deals and making life difficult for his political opponents. DiMasi relishes political operating and, unlike Politics of Hope practitioners, has never publicly deemed legislative wrangling an unfortunate anachronism. Given the demise of Patrick's casino bill, it seems like Patrick and DiMasi have developed a personal working relationship that won't be particularly salubrious for the Patrick agenda. Or it wouldn't be salubrious for the Patrick agenda if the governor had one.

One odd note about the DiMasi/Patrick mash-up over the casinos is that the backroom dealer, not the purportedly noble reformer, held the moral high ground. Patrick stood before the voters 16 months before his casino bill went down to defeat. If he wanted the public's support for such a measure, he could have campaigned for it. Alas, Patrick never mentioned what was to become his signature item on the campaign trail, apparently too busy offering platitudes of hope. In spite of its liberal politics and a plague of libertine Kennedys, Massachusetts retains a strong puritanical streak. DiMasi and the other legislators did the people's business well in keeping their government out of the gaming business.

APPARENTLY NOT CONTENT with merely a humiliating legislative rebuke, Patrick went out of his way to exacerbate his embarrassment with an oddly timed day trip to New York City. On the day the House voted on his signature measure, you probably would have expected Deval Patrick to fight for his bill with every ounce of devotion in true Politics of Hope fashion. Au contraire. Deval Patrick opted to pursue a very personal agenda that day.

While the Massachusetts legislature was ruling on his signature legislative item, Patrick didn't bother engaging in arm twisting or any other similarly quotidian activities. Instead, he spent the day in New York trying to get himself a book contract. At least that part of the story ended happily for Patrick; he got himself a $1.35 million advance for a memoir that's scheduled for publication in 2010. Score another victory for the Politics of Hope!

Patrick's chief of staff Doug Rubin gamely tried to put a positive spin on his boss's legislative defeat, insisting to the Boston Globe's Joan Vennochi that Patrick's bold initiative had jump-started a larger conversation on issues even more important than state run casinos--issues like job creation. It was odd that Rubin brought up "job creation" and linked it to Patrick's casino measure, because this was precisely where Patrick had his largest embarrassment.

During his efforts to sell his casino measure to the Bay State, Patrick repeatedly insisted that if passed, the ensuing construction of the three $1 billion casinos that the bill mandated would create 30,000 new construction jobs. For anyone who knew anything about construction, this figure was perfectly ludicrous. Nevertheless, the Boston Globe took the time to expose Patrick to some well deserved and well researched ridicule:

Gus Faucher, director of macroeconomics for Moody's Economy.com, asked by the Globe to make an independent analysis, said building three casinos at a cost of $1 billion each in Massachusetts would create a total of 4,000 to 5,000 new construction jobs for the duration of the building period, probably three years.

Under that analysis, Patrick's prediction would be at least six times too high.

"I don't know how 30,000 was arrived at, but it didn't come from me," said Frank Callahan, head of the Massachusetts Building Trades Council, an umbrella group of 15 trades such as laborers, carpenters, and electricians. "We're saying 20,000 jobs--and that's still a ton of jobs," he said, citing estimates he arrived at through his own discussions with labor leaders in Nevada and elsewhere.

Ray Kehrhahn, assistant director of the University of Connecticut's Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics, said he has long studied the impacts of that state's two casinos, including creation of new construction jobs.

"I don't know how anyone could come up with 30,000 jobs for three casinos in Massachusetts," he said. "It seems like a very high number."

Please note from the passage above how the union leader and putative Patrick ally with his own ridiculous and unsupportable jobs "estimate" eagerly threw Patrick under the bus. Such is the current state of Governor Patrick's popularity.

You might wonder after reading the above where Patrick came up with his "30,000 new jobs" figure. It turns out that the credulous regent relied on an "estimate" from one of the racetracks that hopes to host one of the lucrative casinos that the measure calls for. Not surprisingly, the racetrack was unable to provide the Globe with any details regarding the methodology that led it to arrive at its 30,000 new jobs guesstimate.

I'D IMAGINE THAT people who live somewhere other than Massachusetts, and thus don't have to suffer with Deval Patrick as their governor, must want to know whether Patrick's troubles may presage difficulties that an Obama administration might encounter. After all, beyond the generic similarities of the two men and their styles of politics, both sought office based on vagaries and vapidity.

The lack of specifics in each campaign was noteworthy. Even in the left wing blogosphere, Obama's refusal to adopt a progressive agenda generated much teeth gnashing until recently. With Patrick, the lack of a specific governing agenda has driven him to adopt issues that even his own party can't support or won't support. The lesson is that one man with a personal mandate differs dramatically from an elected leader with a political mandate.

Patrick's relationship with the legislature also sounds a cautionary note. It turns out that people who practice politics for a living don't much care for a chief executive who makes a frequent point of noting how he'll transcend their way of doing business. The resentment the executive's arrogance engenders makes his job much more difficult if not impossible. Patrick has gotten nothing done to date, and his relationship with the people he's going to have to work with to get things done is verging on poisonous. Patrick's twin penchants for indulging in self-serving rhetoric and a certain slipperiness with the truth have become his defining characteristics. It's not hard to imagine President Obama meeting a similar fate on Capitol Hill.

But there are signs of--yes--hope to be found in the Patrick saga for those with concerns about an Obama administration. When it comes to political blundering, Patrick is sui generis. The pursuit of a book deal on the day his signature legislature item was meeting its fate provides a portrait of a completely original political talent, one who seamlessly meshes unprecedented arrogance, a tin-ear for the ages, and almost immeasurable obtuseness.

Yes, Obama and Patrick share the same rhetoric. And it's true that if Obama gets elected president, like Patrick he and his movement will assume office with a surfeit of narcissism and vanity. But beyond those things, comparisons between the two men are a tad unfair to Obama. It is becoming increasingly evident that Deval Patrick is far more than your garden variety maladroit pol. He is instead proving himself a political bungler for the ages.




Dean Barnett is a staff writer for THE WEEKLY STANDARD.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/01/2008 2:15:45 PM PDT by K-oneTexas
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To: K-oneTexas
Photobucket Just abother liberal pandering to those who want the governement to take care of them.
2 posted on 04/01/2008 2:42:07 PM PDT by xuberalles ("Barack Obama: Change Is A Dime Bag!" http://www.cafepress.com/titillatingtees.225246874)
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To: xuberalles

Kennedy, Kerry and Cadillac Deval = Mass Destruction

This article is music to my ears.


3 posted on 04/01/2008 2:58:39 PM PDT by Melinda
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To: K-oneTexas
Patrick has gotten nothing done to date, and his relationship with the people he's going to have to work with to get things done is verging on poisonous.

This makes him a resounding success in my book.

Considering that Deval's airy slogans and uber-politically correct doublespeak made the moonbats in my orbit pant with abandon, I was quite worried when he won the election. I anticipated this state going from extremely liberal to New Cuba. The fact that Deval is a completely ineffectual non-entity is a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately, our state economy is headed for a big crisis, and we'll have a lib in the corner office who has not one clue as to how to deal with it. Hopefully he'll pay for that in 2010.
4 posted on 04/01/2008 3:18:28 PM PDT by LostInBayport ("Anyone whose tax bill goes up feels like it's an increase." - Mass. Governor Deval Patrick, 2/28/07)
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To: LostInBayport
("Anyone whose tax bill goes up feels like it's an increase." - Mass. Governor Deval Patrick, 2/28/07)

If this is a real quote, can you tell me where it came from?

TIA

FMCDH(BITS)

5 posted on 04/01/2008 4:35:03 PM PDT by nothingnew (I fear for my Republic due to marxist influence in our government. Open eyes/see)
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To: LostInBayport
And THIS is one of the biggest reasons why Obama scares me as much as he does. Patrick is useless and I knew it was going to be this way if he was elected.

I will be in true mourning if I have to have Deval as my Gov. and Obama as my President. :(.

On the bright side, it seems as if my fellow Massachusetts citizens may now realize that Patrick is all talk and no action.

6 posted on 04/01/2008 4:40:19 PM PDT by MissyMa
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To: K-oneTexas

Deval Patrick was born on the South Side of Chicago, that spawning place for the Politics of Hype, Hate, and Hoax.


7 posted on 04/01/2008 7:05:55 PM PDT by Malesherbes
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To: nothingnew
It's a real quote...it's been my tagline ever since I read the article. Here's a couple of paragraphs:

The Boston Globe: Thursday, March 1, 2007

A numbers roadshow By Adrian Walker, Globe Columnist

The Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday figured to be a skeptical audience for Governor Deval Patrick's first budget, and it was. He got a standing ovation when he took the stage and far more restrained applause when he left it.

snip...

Patrick yesterday ducked the question of whether it is balanced by jacking up taxes on businesses. He is, he says, closing corporate "loopholes." He told me he wasn't inclined to debate what constitutes a tax hike.

"Anyone whose tax bill goes up feels like it's an increase," Patrick said yesterday, a few hours after the speech. "But that's what homeowners have been feeling for years." The budget also resolves the whopping $1.3 billion deficit left by the Romney administration.
8 posted on 04/01/2008 8:46:01 PM PDT by LostInBayport ("Anyone whose tax bill goes up feels like it's an increase." - Mass. Governor Deval Patrick, 2/28/07)
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To: Melinda

I agree!


9 posted on 04/01/2008 11:56:56 PM PDT by xuberalles ("Barack Obama: Change Is A Dime Bag!" http://www.cafepress.com/titillatingtees.225246874)
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To: Malesherbes
Deval Patrick was born on the South Side of Chicago, that spawning place for the Politics of Hype, Hate, and Hoax.

Maybe you should draw your circle a little larger. Ward Churchill was from Elmwood, Ill., near Peoria.

10 posted on 04/02/2008 12:27:16 AM PDT by Rocky
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