His cheesy logo/slogan did deserve some ribbing. And unlike Point .08 Acres, I don’t think “Believe Again” will have especially appeal to crossover suburbanites. It will have appeal to progressive suburbanites, the ones who supported Reich in 2002.
But I should point out that I’m quite open minded about the Deval Patrick candidacy. Everyone seems to be impressed with his ability to communicate and work a room, and I look forward to actually hearing him rather than reading about him. My thoughts in the past have simply worried that progressives are going to want the candidate that’s theirs regardless of whether he or she’s the one most likely to beat Romney - in fact I fear that they (we) are tempted to think that what we really want is also what the majority of Bay Staters want. 2002 was a rout, and a tax revolt to boot. It’s convenient to latch onto part of the problem (Shannon O’Brien) and ignore the rest. Convenient, but hazardous.
Say what you will about Scot Lehigh, but I think he’s pretty much on the money in his assessment of the relative strengths and weaknesses of Reilly and Patrick.
‘Tom is a fine man and a fine prosecutor . . . but nobody is entitled to the nomination or entitled to anybody’s vote,” Patrick replied. ‘’I think frankly that a record of caution and an insider focus is not what we need in Massachusetts right now.”
That’s an off-target critique of an attorney general who has demonstrated a repeated willingness to take on powerful institutions and people and to tackle thorny problems. And who has never displayed any serious symptoms of insiderdom.
Reilly’s actual problems are more stylistic. Low key, painfully soft-spoken, Joe Friday matter-of-fact, he is awkward at working a room and only an indifferent speaker. Add to that Massachusetts’s history as a place where attorneys general, current or former, have had a very difficult time trying to move up to governor. (Witness Eddie McCormack, Bob Quinn, Frank Bellotti, and Scott Harshbarger.)
But if Reilly doesn’t make a compelling first impression, he remains an eminently decent guy, a hard worker determined to see that the state’s citizens get a square deal. That should prove an asset over the long haul.
Patrick does make a pretty good first impression. The danger for him, however, is that he ends up as this year’s Robert Reich, for here’s an instructive rule in politics: Be skeptical about candidates who, without any real electoral experience, parachute into tricky political terrain to try for the top job….
Despite Reich’s promise, however, his campaign never hit critical mass. He trimmed his iconoclast’s sails as he courted the party’s various constituencies. And, running in a year of collapsing state revenues, he sometimes seemed more interested in daydreaming about what he’d do when good times returned than in addressing the budgetary challenges that loomed.
“Poor Scot,” Chimes at Midnight gripes, “he just can’t give up that weird gooey blathering moderate republican ideology that infests practically the columnistas on Morrissey Blvd. ” Actually, Lehigh pretty much represents moderate Democratic ideology. The sort you’re going to have to appeal to if you actually want to win. You can’t wish these people away.
Or maybe you can, and that’s the problem.
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