Patrick and Obama: Promises Really Are “Just Words”
By Uppity Woman on May 5, 2008 at 3:14 PM in Bamboozling, Barack Obama, Deval Patrick, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Ted Kennedy
In spite of the fact that Ted Kennedy dragged his substantial butt all over Massachusetts for him, in spite of the fact that John Swiftboat Kerry insisted he was The One, and in spite of Ted’s efforts to trot out as many Kennedys as possible, the State of Massachusetts told Barack Obama to take a hike on their Primary Day.
Did you ever wonder why?
| For starters, Massachussets, or “Massatoosits,”as Obama calls them, recognized the warmed-over rhetoric of their own Axelrod media creation, the Sensational Deval Patrick. We have all seen plenty of videos of both men’s |
On Primary Day, the people of Massachusetts must have been laughing all the way to the polls that day, wondering just exactly how stupid America has to be to fall for a candidate who was unashamedly using Deval Patrick’s Monarch Notes for both his rally call and a campaign platform.
The Bluest State in the Country rejected Obama that day because, having stepped in it before, they recognized a pile of moose poop when they saw it. They recognized that “We are the change we have been waiting for” is just…….well…….just words.
No surprise to anybody who sees through catchy, mesmerizing rhetoric with precious few details, Deval Patrick is a dismal disappointment to Massachusetts. His flowery speeches and promises have turned out to be Just Words as, issue by issue, Patrick has proven to be either a coward or a liar – or inept.
But the two men differ in one critical area: Mr. Patrick has an executive record. And, unfortunately for the senator from Illinois, it reveals that the Patrick-Obama brand of politics isn’t really new. It is, in fact, something akin to the failed liberalism of old, in a new vessel.
I think it’s fair at this point to mention that Deval Patrick’s career was launched when he was appointed by the Clinton Administration as Assistant Attorney General to the Civil Rights Division. You know the Clinton Administration right? The suddenly “racist” administration that launched more careers for African Americans than all the other presidents combined?–including Donna Brazile, who now sprays mace in their face because a black man is running for office.
Massachusetts Democrats were all excited about this “Different” candidate, this “Historic” candidate, this candidate that was going to “change” things. His rhetoric soared. He asked people to “believe”. He eluded to people like JFK, RFK and MLK as if he and his “Words” belonged in in their league. Deval Patrick made plenty of Hope-y Change-y promises and the people of Massachusetts fell for it. They were going to get a new kind of leader, a different kind of politics. What they got instead was a wimp who caved in on every single issue he promised to address. In short, the dismal failure known as Deval Patrick helped Hillary Clinton, not only in the Massachusetts Primary, but in neighboring states that receive Boston News.
So what exactly did Deval Patrick do, or should I say not do, that made the people of Massachusetts not only wish they hadn’t fallen for his tripe, but also made them reject his obvious clone, Barack Obama?
Voters in Massachusetts had hoped Mr. Patrick’s reformist promises and appealing style would mean a makeover for a tired political culture that has long since stopped producing satisfactory results. Instead, they, along with voters in southern New Hampshire and northern Rhode Island (which receive Boston news), now seem wary of the Obama-Patrick connection. These areas turned out heavily for Hillary Clinton in the presidential primaries and helped her carry all three states.
Deval “Believe” Patrick not only wimped out on his promise for change, but he wimped out without so much as a fight, right from, if you will excuse the pun, Day One.
What the Bay State got, however, is a pedestrian liberal governor who is remarkably quick to retreat in the face of pressure from the status- quo.
Mr. Patrick’s first cave-in came just weeks after he was elected, and before he was even sworn into office. On the campaign trail he promised to cut $735 million in wasteful spending from the state budget. But when the Democratic Senate president rebuked him for it, the governor-elect backpedalled.
The Boston Globe summed up the wimped-out Patrick by seeing him as he really was: “Patrick backed off and said he didn’t really mean it.”
Another retreat came on a common sense issue that likely might have marked him as a true reformer had he made even a losing fight of it. Massachusetts is the only state that mandates that cops, not flagmen, direct traffic at road-construction sites. Earlier this spring, Mr. Patrick proposed loosening the requirement as a way to save taxpayers millions, but quickly recanted when the police union flooded the capitol with lobbyists. Within days, Mr. Patrick told listeners of his monthly radio show “the more I think about this, the less certain I am that we can fix this top down.”
Deval Hopey-Changey-Just-Words Patrick not only backed down but even worked to dismantle what good progress had been made before him, including opening teacher certification to just about anybody who wants it–in a State that has always been known for higher standards in teacher certifications. Not only that, but he apparently doesn’t think College Preparation programs in schools is all that and a bag of chips either.
Education may be the one area where Mr. Patrick could have done the most to demonstrate that he is indeed a new man of the left. Fifteen years ago, the state enacted strict testing requirements for both teachers and students and passed reforms that encourage the creation of charter schools. The Result:Massachusetts consistently places among the top performers on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Sticking by these bipartisan reforms – or even expanding them to help minority children in poor areas –
would seem to be an easy call.
But to the delight of education unions, Mr. Patrick instead appears to be laying the groundwork
to dismantle these reforms. He appointed antitesting zealot Ruth Kaplan to the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, where she repaid his confidence recently by disparaging the college preparation emphasis of some charter schools. She said these schools set “some kids up for failure . . . Their families don’t always know what’s best for their children.”
To recap: Under Deval Patrick’s concept of Change, teachers who fail the certification test three times can teach anyways. All you would have to do for Deval is take that test three times even if you don’t have a clue what is required of you. Basically, Deval Patrick wimped out and told the State of Massachusetts to say goodbye to the State’s highest teaching standards.
Does anybody see a similarity in style and Hope-y Change-y promises here? Both claim that their ability to work with people coupled with their miraculous ability to persuade people to do the “right thing” is a major reason for you to “believe” in their “new kind of politics”. Both of them made the same speeches. In fact, both of them are practically the same lame man.
One characteristic of the Obama-Patrick brand of politics is the assertion that they can personally persuade disparate political leaders to reach a consensus. Mr. Patrick’s biggest test of this claim came this year when he proposed bringing jobs to the state by allowing casino gambling in Massachusetts. The proposal angered an odd alliance of liberals and social conservatives because gambling is a highly regressive (if voluntary) tax. And it ended in defeat for the governor.
The Bluest State Of All sees what so many of us also see. Barack Obama is a recycled Deval Patrick in both word and intent, and they will not fall for that tripe again.
What should trouble Mr. Obama the most is that the stirring rhetoric of Mr. Patrick’s 2006 campaign, now being recycled by the Illinois senator (at times, word for word), is no longer connecting with Massachusetts voters. A mid-April poll found that 56% of the state’s voters disapprove of the Governor’s performance. Even among left-leaning Democrats, more than four in 10 disapprove of Mr. Patrick.
In short, Barack Obama not only has future problems with Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Ohio, but he has one with That Bluest State Of All. That is why Massachusetts will not be impressed in November, should he sadly become the Democratic Party’s nominee. But I suppose he can always depend on states he won, such as Mississippi, which hasn’t voted Democratic in a General Election since the 60s. Perhaps all the Republicans will stay home.
Good luck with that, Barack.
, the basis for the Best Motion Picture Nominee (Golden Globes) starring Brad Pitt.
, the novel by John Le Carre, a new motion picture starring Gary Oldman and Colin Firth.
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