Maybe We Can’t!
The recently elected Democratic President of the United States can’t fill a room in bluest Massachusetts. Surveying the nearly half-empty Westin Copley ballroom, 2008 “Yes We Can” Hope-and-Changer Barack Obama says on behalf of his longtime political doppelganger Deval Patrick, who in 2006 was the “Together We Can” template O drew on:
“There really should be no doubt that this guy gets a second term. But let’s be honest. This is going to be a tough race … ”
Boston Herald. Geez. I’m sure Deval is glad to have the $600,000 grand, but maybe Barry should have done him a favor and stayed in D.C. To avoid the Bush-like embarrassment of low turnout and protestors. And we aren’t even a year into the first term yet.
Boston Globe helpfully plays down and buries five long graphs down but can’t quite ignore Obama’s low draw. We’ll get to that eventually, like they did. First, It was all about lowering expectations. And keeping the insider positioned as an outsider:
Sweeping into town for the fund-raiser and to deliver a speech on clean energy at MIT, Obama said Patrick deserves credit for implementing near-universal health care, investing in education, and making the alternative energy and biotech industries a priority. If voters fail to recognize this hard work in next year’s state election, the president said, it will not bode well for the United States.
I’m sorry. It was about lowering expectations and claiming dire consequences for the very nation itself if the agenda doesn’t get pushed. Maybe what he means is, 2010 losses won’t bode well for US … as in “we” … in 2012. Because, he suggests, it will effectively render him a lame duck.
Otherwise, Obama said, other political leaders will say “then maybe I shouldn’t, as a member of Congress or as a senator, take some chances and take some tough stands in pursuit of that same vision.’’
Damn, for an early first-term mandate holder, he’s not sounding very confident. But facing addressing all those empty chairs in blue Mass must have been disheartening.
The fund-raiser, composed of the reception and a larger ballroom gathering, demonstrated one of Patrick’s advantages in what is expected to be a difficult reelection campaign: having the president of the United States, a close friend and political soul mate, shower him with praise and help him raise money. Patrick aides said the fund-raiser would bring in more than $600,000 for him, running mate Lieutenant Governor Timothy Murray, and the Massachusetts Democratic Party - although the events appeared to not be fully booked.
“There’s not a tougher time to be governor than right now,’’ Obama said.
Meanwhile, it looks like Patrick will be running for his second term as an outsider. Given Patrick’s historic role as the O-Lite template, this is worth paying attention to:
“You fired up?’’ Patrick shouted into the microphone after coming onto the stage, using Obama’s trademark rallying cry from the 2008 election. “Ready to go?’’
(They tend to swap slogans, good speeches back and forth. You remember: Grand Theft Quoto)
The governor then ticked off several of what he considers his administration’s big achievements.
“And no, no, I have not yet mastered the ways of the career politician,’’ Patrick said. “I admit that. Because I don’t wake up every day thinking about reelection, or how to make myself look good on the evening news, or how to go along to get along. I wake up thinking about you. How to make a better commonwealth. And there is more to accomplish, so much more.’’
He listed closing the achievement gap in education, controlling health care costs, and creating more jobs among his biggest priorities.
“Give us four more years, and we will finish what we started,’’ he said.
Curiously the Globe doesn’t bother to list what those accomplishments are. Let’s see if I can help. Taxes up? Check. Services down? Check. Hacks and pals hired, promoted, given raises amid furloughs and layoffs? Check. Universal health-care costs bankrupting the state amid economic crisis? Check.
In fairness, the latter financial drain was pushed through by former Republican Gov. Mitt Romney. In good times, as a prelude to his presidential run. It’s just been maintained amid crisis by Patrick.
Side issue: Thank God this is a two-newspaper town. The Boston Globe, which unlike the Boston Herald didn’t even have the good manners to welcome the President of the United States to Boston in Friday’s paper, seems to have missed the protestors again today, even though the angry mob included major elements of O’s electorate and the Globe’s readership. Boston Herald … again:
Anti-war protesters and gay rights advocates stationed yesterday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Copley Plaza to tell President Obama to shape up were met by excited fans of the commander in chief in a dueling Moonbat Nation turnout for his Hub visit.
“I want to tell him we are with him. We have his back,” said Billie Jo Joy, a yoga teacher and artist, who wore a dress of red Everlast boxing gloves to Obama’s MIT appearance.
“This is a knock-down, drag-out fight we’ve got here on our hands,” said Joy, referring to the battle over a public health care option. “The gloves are off.”
Protesters disappointed by Obama’s handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, gay rights and climate change made a showing throughout the area.
“It’s disgusting. He’s expanding all of Bush’s wars,” said David Rolde, 42, of Weston. The stay-at-home dad held signs that read “Arrest Obama for war crimes” and “Free Palestine.”
“I hope I can reach some Americans and help them understand how bad Obama is,” he said.
Gay rights demonstrators and low-wage union workers furious with Gov. Deval Patrick over the closing of the Fernald Center in Waltham made up the largest groups of protesters at Copley Plaza.
“I feel very let down. I voted expecting change,” said Fisher College student Ian Struthers, 23, who wants Obama to change policies on gays in the military and extend marriage rights to same-sex couples. “He’s ignoring us.”
It’s too bad, because apparently the Globe’s editorial decision to overlook the protests meant that, in whatever kind of journalistic balance calculus they exercise over there on Morrissey Boulevard, they had to overlook the admirers, too. Herald … again:
But Obama must have felt the love as well as crowds of admirers rushed the barricades around MIT’s Kresge Auditorium to catch a glimpse of him.
At Copley, Northeastern University graduate students Sivan Shammay, 24, and Lisa Vogel, 22, stopped by while running errands.
“I just think it’s cool to see the president of the United States,” Shammay said. “I’m just happy to be here.”
See? There still are some.
Welcome HotAir, Instapundit, American Thinkers, Freepers. Always so good to see you. Give it for the Marines! They gave it for you! The Valour IT push is on for war-wounded Americans. In other business, WWII In HD: This Gary Sinise-involved project could be the answer to that wretched Ken Burns dirge, “The War.” But with hook-line-and-sinker Obamist Frederic Lumiere directing, can it?
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Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:12 am on Saturday, October 24, 2009
12 Responses to “Maybe We Can’t!”
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October 24th, 2009 at 10:11 am
[...] “YES WE CAN,” TO maybe we can’t. “The recently elected Democratic President of the United States can’t fill a room in bluest [...]
October 24th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
No We Won’t!
I’m sure Dear Reader is dismayed that America does not embrace his Marxist dream of a People’s Paradise where everyone (except the ruling elite) is equally miserable.
American citizens are tired of being represented by weasels, whether the have an R jersy or a D jersey. Both are more concerned about their team than the country.
Newt Gingrich is telling me that Dede Scozzafava NY-23 is the future of the GOP.
Really?
Hoffman for Congress!
GOP=WHIG
October 24th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
[...] “Maybe We Can’t !” Great post on Obama in Massachusetts, from Jules Crittenden: “Yes We Can” Hope-and-Changer Barack Obama says on behalf of his longtime political doppelganger Deval Patrick, who in 2006 was the “Together We Can” template O drew on…” [...]
October 24th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Apparently Deval is re-running Jennifer Granholm’s re-election campaign in Michigan in 2006. Boy, that worked out really well for Michigan. Her first campaign slogan (2002) was “In five years, you’ll be blown away!” followed in 2006 by “You ain’t seen nuthin’ yet!”
Unfortunately for us in Michigan, she was right both times. By 2007 we were being blown away by budget deficits, failing businesses and unemployment one and a half times the national average. Now, in 2009 we realize we hadn’t “seen nuthin’ yet” in 2007. What was really bad in 2007 is now godawful bad in 2009.
Lots of luck MA. You’re going to need it.
First female gov, first black gov.
Inspiring speaker, inspiring speaker.
Promises results, promises results.
State in dumper, state in dumper.
Promises more of the same only better, . . . .
Seeing a pattern.
Isn’t it about time for less photogenic, possibly less well-spoken candidates who can actually govern?
October 25th, 2009 at 12:18 am
They both sound like they’re feeling sorry for themselves. “I’m mopping up someone else’s mess and nobody’s helping.” “I’m sorry I’ve no yet mastered the ways of the career politician.”
Nobody forced these jobs on them. They both came in with inadequate experience and false understanding of what was needed and have both performed their jobs so far like deer in the headlights. That is nobody else’s fault. I don’t think the Constitution provides for other people grabbing a mop to help out. Only one President or Governor at a time.
October 25th, 2009 at 2:22 pm
[...] Jules Crittenden - Maybe We Can’t [...]
October 25th, 2009 at 5:26 pm
[...] Heh, heh! Obama failed to fill a room in the bluest of blue states – Massachusetts. Yes we can? It’s more like ‘Maybe we can’t.’ [...]
October 25th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
[...] to a state rep today concerning the Obama visit… By datechguy that Jules Crittenden wrote about today: The recently elected Democratic President of the United States can’t fill a [...]
October 25th, 2009 at 9:52 pm
[...] Crittenden’s blog post also notes the variation in the treatment of protests that occurred outside the events. [...]
October 26th, 2009 at 1:22 am
[...] to raise money for Gov. Deval Patrick, a/k/a David Axelrod’s beta version of Obama. The fundraiser was half-empty, as Obama acknowledged that Partick will be in a “tough race.” How tough? The most [...]
October 26th, 2009 at 11:19 am
[...] Massachusetts to raise money for Gov. Deval Patrick, a/k/a David Axelrod’s beta version of Obama. The fundraiser was half-empty, as Obama acknowledged that Partick will be in a “tough race.” How tough? The most recent [...]
October 29th, 2009 at 8:06 am
[...] in Massachusetts when campaigning for a Democratic governor? According to the Boston Herald and Jules Crittenden, one does not need to look to Virginia to see a big enthusiasm gap for a Democrat in the first year [...]