I sense an inconsequential disturbance in the Force.
Who?
ETA: This was actually not intended as a put-down per se on Patrick but rather than he has been completely and totally off my radar, and for quite some time…
I won’t be running either. As you were.
Nuts!
Perhaps Duval knows something we don’t.
This is bigger news than those who have commented seem to think. With Patrick in the running, it would have been hard for anyone else (besides Biden) to get Obama’s implicit or explicit backing. Now it’s wide open.
I like Patrick. HuffPost published a hit piece on him yesterday and I wonder whether the timing of this news is just coincidental.
This is good, but not unexpected news. My thoughts on Patrick (ETA- I voted for him twice)
- Great campaigner - his 2006 campaign was in a way the template for Obama’s initial presidential run.
- Pretty good governor - he liked and worked hard at the job unlike his predecessor, Mitt Romney. He was a great communicator especially when outlining a vision. I had just left a position with the state when he came in, but continued to work closely with my former colleagues who had great respect for him. He definitely improved the morale of state employees.
- He beat Charlie Baker and was re-elected to a second term (see point 1). Baker ran a fairly typical Republican red-meat campaign trying to emulate Scott Brown’s surprise Senate victory. Baker’s campaign was counter to his previous reputation as an old fashioned, moderate Main Street Republican in the mode of Senator Brooke and it failed. Baker went back to his wonky moderate Republican roots and is now governor for as long as he wants to be unless he really screws something up.
- Patrick is/was a very corporatist Wall Street Dem. Although he grew up poor on the south side of Chicago, he become quite comfortable both before and after his governorship with money and power (not that there is anything wrong with that.) Before he was Gov he was on the Board of Directors of a subprime lender and afterwards has been working for Mitt’s old firm - Bain Capital. (full disclosure - during Romney’s time, Bain bled the company that my Dad worked for over 40 years to death which destroyed hundreds of decent manufacturing towns in an already declining mill town, I don’t know what Patrick has been working on, but some of it probably hurt working class people and towns - think leopards and spots)
- He was prone to overreaching on Grand Bargains. An attempt at a major restructuring of housing authorities was a bit of a fiasco and another was an attempt to drastically restructure (read reduce and/or eliminate) health benefits for retirees (full disclosure - this would have hit me hard, so I carry a grudge, I’m from Massachusetts, it is personal.) In both cases, there was room for compromises that would have created efficiencies and savings at the margins, but it didn’t happen.
I agree with all five points you made.
Agreed, and I think it also frees up votes that could bolster both Booker and Holder’s candidacies. Should either or both men decide not to run, Kamala Harris’ stock shoots through the roof.
One down. Approximately 30 to go.
I kind of followed his governorship from afar in NYC. Since you’re in Massachusetts you have a really good read of it. What boggles me was his push for casino gaming. It’s usually opposed by a coalition of conservatives, particularly religious types, good governance liberals and some business organizations who represent interests where gaming is incompatible like the Cape or fishery towns. The reasons vary from gaming expansion being a regressive tax on the poor and working class. The jobs created are low pay or don’t materialize. As well as addiction issues and it’s considered to be for some religions to be sinful.
The gaming expansion in NYS that was passed by referendum a few years ago hasn’t lived up to its expectations with fewer casinos licensed and built and lower than expected revenue from the new ones. Cuomo pushed it as an economic development strategy even though his father had opposed gaming expansion for his three terms. His dad would relate a story about his own father who owned a grocery store in Jamaica Queens and people would have to put their groceries on credit because they were playing the numbers.
When you have a critical mass of gaming in nearby locations like Foxwoods it’s harder for new ones to be profitable.
Regarding gaming - I think he (correctly) saw millions of Massachusetts residents’ dollars being spent in CT and RI and wanted to reroute them here. If we end up with the slots parlor in Plainfield (open for over 3 years), the new casino in Springfield and the soon to be opened casino in Everett (Boston metro), that should be plenty for the exact reasons that you cited.
It would be tough for Massachusetts to claim a religious objection against gambling as Catholicism is the biggest religion and many parishes rely on their own bingo games. We also have an old and successful lottery.
Mitt’s greatest accomplishment as Gov was passing Obamacare 1.0 before Obama. His second was allowing alcohol sales on Sunday. It took a teetotaling Mormon to do what no Yankee, Greek, or Irish politician could do.
I really, really hate the constant never-ending campaign for Presidency or any other high office for that matter. Its no wonder so many politicians never come to see themselves as having their no. 1 job to either govern, legislate or shut the fuck up until the rest of the country is actually ready for another fucking election cycle, which btw, is two frickin years away…Truthfully, I blame the media for this earlier than normal speculation. They’re continually trying to chase down candidates, as if there is no time to enjoy or dread the last election, whichever your fancy. It seems the process gets earlier and earlier each time. We need to get rid of the constant hype that’s endemic to this process.
Or…maybe that’s just me.
I like Patrick but both Booker and Harris have been much more front and center in combatting and resisting Trump. African American voters have a lot more interest and affection for Booker and Harris than they do for Patrick. Patrick seemed to figure that out and bowed out.
As of right now, I see the following people running:
Biden
Bernie
Brown
Harris
Klobuchar
Booker
Update: adding Beto.
Of this top tier, my hope is that it’s anyone but Bernie. My preferred ticket is Harris/Brown or Brown/Harris. I’m hoping that each of these candidates edges into the demos that Bernie is going after and keep him under the targets needed to amass enough delegates to cause problems at the convention. I believe Bernie’s strategy is to get about 30% of the vote, get to the convention with delegates and then use those delegates (who tend to be far more radical than the average Bernie voter) to raise hell to blackmail the party into putting him on the ticket. He’s a problem that Dems will have to deal with.
I’ve also added Beto. I think he should run. He represented the Obama/RFK tradition well in his race, but he also has that wrinkle as a closet Clintonite. If he runs more like that and maintains his connection to the young voters that propelled him to a close result vs. Cruz, he could be a force. He did make some mistakes in that race and if he has the ability to learn from it and reframe himself, he can be a formidable candidate. If he doesn’t demonstrate growth from it, he won’t win, but he’ll give the party a good image and will be very supportive of the eventual nominee.
Other folks I’d like to see run: Chris Murphy, Terry McAuliffe, Kirsten Gillibrand. I think McAuliffe brings an optimism on the issue of free trade that we need to recapture in our party. The millennials will not get the jobs they need if we aren’t aggressive in selling to an increasingly prosperous Asia. Chris Murphy, honestly, has the best judgment I’ve seen among any of the Democrats. I’d like to see him be the Senate Majority Leader. I’m a big fan of that guy. Gillibrand is a good solid Dem. She’ll have issues with how she handled the Franken matter, but she was essentially right that the Dems needed to establish a brand on respecting women and her move, much to the chagrin of Frankenites, did help position the Dems to win 60% of the female vote.
We also have another category of candidates, Bloomberg, Steyer, Ojeda, Delaney and a few others whom I don’t regard as serious threats, though Bloomberg/Steyer could get into that top tier because of money. Bloomberg was pretty effective with his spending in the last election. He got some wins on the board for Team Blue and he has an issue: gun control. Steyer has impeachment. Both can add something to the debate. I think Ojeda is basically a Trumper on race issues and I view him warily and skeptically.
Agreed, but as long as cable news and the internet exist it won’t happen.
I saw an interview with him and his answers on issues regarding race and gender were just abysmal. I also agree with your other predictions except that I would add Eric Holder and Mitch Landrieu. Having seen a few interviews with each man I think they would actually be pretty formidable candidates.
They are my favorites as well. I’m not sure Senator Duckworth will run for President, if not, she would make a great VP. I could see Brown/Duckworth retaining IL and reclaiming PA, MI, WI, OH and maybe even IN for the Dems.
I like the Brown/Harris, Harris/Brown combo too.
What about Beto? Any chance he’ll throw his hat in the ring?
My sense is that he being a director at Bain Capital ( aka Romney) and with the Dems hopefully leaning more left he would have been eviscerated as a corporate Democrat
I agree with or defer to you on virtually all of this, except Patrick’s role at Bain has been to make “do-good” investments. So I don’t think that would have been a black mark. The mortgage stuff is worse.