Anyone from Massachusetts could see numerous parallels between Deval Patrick's gubernatorial campaign in 2006 and Obama's presidential campaign in 2008. Deval Patrick's slogan was "Together, We Can" and he also used words like "hope" and "change." Obama's campaign similarly adopted "Yes, We Can" as a rallying cry, and endless repeated the themes of "hope" and "change." Obama admittedly (after being called out on it) used material from his friend Deval, include rhetoric for speeches.
Their administrations had similar rocky beginnings. Deval Patrick was criticized for various picks for his administration, and got a lot of heat for demanding expensive upgrades to office furnishings and the governor's car. Obama couldn't nominate someone for a cabinet position that didn't have tax troubles, and seems to enjoy using taxpayer dollars to fund date night's with his wife, amongst other things.
Both men ran with high approval. Both gave soaring speeches full of focus-group tested rhetoric, and seemed destined to walk into their positions and undo the wrongs of past administrations. Both men came into office with majorities in the legislative branch -- perfect rubber stamps for their agendas.
But, hope runs out, eventually. Rhetoric takes a backseat to leadership in the long run. Deval Patrick maybe have won in a landslide, but is now polling poorly against two Republican challengers (one officially declared, and one not) that offers a glimmer of hope to people around the country who fear that Obama, with his high approval and majorities in the House and Senate, will be unstoppable.
A new Rasmussen poll has Deval Patrick behind Republican challenger Christy Mihos 41-40. As the local Massachusetts blog Hub Politics notes, that's not bad Mihos, when he ran as an independent candidate in the 2006 election, only got about 7 percent of the vote.
Potential candidate Charlie Baker gets 36 percent to Deval Patrick's 41 percent... Hardly something that Deval Patrick should consider a glimmer of hope for his political future.
One could argue that Massachusetts is no microcosm for the United States as a whole, but we're are already starting to see a shift in Obama's approval that suggests that in three years, his political future may similarly threatened. As of this post, Rasmussen's presidential tracking poll has Obama with a negative approval index. Gallup shows that more people are perceiving the Democratic Party as "too liberal." The last time it was seen as high as it is today was in the Republican takeover of Congress in 1994. With Obama trying to fast-track his agenda before he loses his bicameral majority, he may find that he will be the victim of his own success. You can't set expectations so high on the campaign trail that with a bunch of promises you cannot keep, and an agenda many do not support once they look beyond the rhetoric and understand the details.
Deval Patrick's rise and fall should be a message to conservatives across the country. There is still hope for freedom-loving Americans to take this country back before Obama turns it into something we no longer recognize as America.