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Deval Patrick’s dismal poll showings a boon to challengers
Boston Herald ^ | July 1, 2009 | Dave Wedge & Hillary Chabot

Posted on 07/01/2009 7:48:37 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement

Gov. Deval Patrick has only himself to blame for an embarrassing poll showing a narrow win for Republican rival Christy Mihos, opposing strategists and potential challengers charged yesterday.

“Patrick right now is running against himself - and losing,” said political strategist and author Dick Morris, a former top adviser to President Clinton who is working for Mihos. “It shows there’s tremendous vulnerability.”

(Excerpt) Read more at news.bostonherald.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Massachusetts
KEYWORDS: devalpatick; governor; massachusetts; patrick
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Buyer's remorse.
1 posted on 07/01/2009 7:48:37 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

How low is low? He is a smarter version of Obama. Stupid libs.


2 posted on 07/01/2009 7:50:50 AM PDT by Frantzie
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

How low is low? He is a smarter version of Obama. Stupid libs.


3 posted on 07/01/2009 7:50:53 AM PDT by Frantzie
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

FUBO will soon follow......................


4 posted on 07/01/2009 7:51:26 AM PDT by Red Badger (Inquiring minds want to know, but American Idol minds could care less...)
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Mr. Patrick is Mr. Obama’s “Mini-Me.”

Old Deval never met a spending bill he didn’t like.

He is also superb at raising fees and taxes - just like the drunks who populate the legislature.

Ugh.


5 posted on 07/01/2009 7:51:40 AM PDT by RexBeach
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To: RexBeach

Is it the other way around? Weren’t many of the O’s talking points/speeches verbatim of ones Mr. Patrick gave earlier? Axelrod might say never let a good speech go to waste.


6 posted on 07/01/2009 8:00:05 AM PDT by nclaurel
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

It’s Massachusetts. This pantload Patrick will be re-elected for life unless Ubama appoints him to something more lucrative.


7 posted on 07/01/2009 8:02:34 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: Lancey Howard

You are absolutely correct, Deval will be re-elected no matter how many taxes he raises. He has a D after his name, is black and supports killing babies. Case closed. A Rasmussen poll shows he leads any contender by 15% and would win about 55 - 60% of the votes which is accurate. Massachusetts is a lost cause, do not get expect any Republican to get elected on a state wide position in our life times. The state sales tax just went up to 6.25%, the gas tax increase in on the table and I predict that income tax will go up as well. And despite that Deval will get re-elected in Massachusetts.


8 posted on 07/01/2009 8:25:40 AM PDT by Maneesh
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To: nclaurel
Yes, Patrick was first and Obama stole his speeches.

The claimed that they used the same speech writer.

9 posted on 07/01/2009 8:34:21 AM PDT by outpostinmass2
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To: nclaurel

Yup. Used to be. Not anymore. Mr. Obama is the big dog now. No matter when he says what - he said it first!


10 posted on 07/01/2009 8:34:59 AM PDT by RexBeach
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To: Maneesh
We did have 16 years of Republican governors before Patrick, there is hope. Patrick was able to bring the moonbats to the polls who usually only vote in presidential elections. We'll see if the moonbats can get energized again.
11 posted on 07/01/2009 8:39:34 AM PDT by outpostinmass2
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To: Maneesh

I disagree. I remember back in the 70’s when Nixon resigned because of Watergate and all of us up in Massachusetts had “Don’t blame me. I’m from Massachusetts.” bumper stickers (referencing the fact that the only state to go for McGovern, the democrat, in 1972 was Massachusetts).

Concurrent with that, we had Gov. Sargent, a patrician Republican as our governor. These things are possible. However, what has to happen is that those who were motivated by novelty, pride or guilt have to have time to let those feelings subside so they can return to using more objective and rational evaluations of performance. Obama really is the national version of the statewide Patrick candidacy. Axelrod test drove the concept with Patrick and used the same bag of tricks and yes, phrases to get Obama elected to national office. Axelrod really is the Joseph Goebbels of the movement.

In the 80’s we had an innovative string of black mayors in many of America’s larger cities. The first really was Mayor Bradley in Los Angeles but he was different in that he was elected with widespread support and the black community really couldn’t lay claim to the idea that they “made him”. However, the wave that brought Harold Washington to Chicago, Marion Barry to DC, David Dinkens to New York and Wilson Goode to Philadelphia was different. These mayors were empowerment mayors that portended a real arrival of power by the black community...power they intended to use. At the same time, white guilt provided just enough to close the gap and allow the progressives to move away from patrician white men.

Everybody celebrated their progressive advancement. That is until Chicago’s projects got worse instead of better. New York’s trash became worse instead of better. Marion Barry’s exploits with women and drugs were video taped at seedy motels and broadcast worldwide and Mayor Goode dropped a bomb on the MOVE house and lit up a whole block of old homes in historic West Philadelphia.

Eventually, folks opened their eyes and returned to judging politicians on objective criteria. Of these four cities, only one, Philadelphia, can claim a black mayor today. This is largely because Mayor Street was the only high profile politician who could fill the void after the very likeable Ed Rendell became Governor. Street benefitted from the success that Rendell had running the city after the fiasco years of Wilson Goode. Today, Street is in real trouble as much of the advances Rendell brought backslide into the pre-Rendell era.

Washington DC’s Adrian Malik Fenty is an enigma really. He is the youngest mayor of DC being born in 1970. His father is Panamanian and African and his mother is Italian American which makes him at best, 1/4 black which means he is tan but not really black. That combined with his ages makes him more of a cosmopolitan candidate than a black candidate.

All this points out that like what was done in progressive cities in the 1980’s, we may see a similar pattern in the Governor’s office and the White House over the next few years. As the accomplishment of progressiveness losses its sheen, real criteria will return to the electorate’s decision making and candidates elected largely through affirmative action will once again suffer greatly.


12 posted on 07/01/2009 8:54:45 AM PDT by johnnycap
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To: johnnycap

Wow, very informative post. You have correctly pointed out some interesting cycles. My comment is based on observing the population and thought process of most of the people in MA. The mainstream thought process has got more liberal and the relationship between citizen and govt is as close to Europe as we can get in America. I am in general an optimist and love America but just can’t see any change happening in MA. The same 30-40% will vote against Deval and the rest will vote for him.


13 posted on 07/01/2009 9:13:12 AM PDT by Maneesh
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To: MassRepublicanFlyersFan

Until such time as the GOP is grown in the legislature (now 90% rodent), there is absolutely no point for the party to even challenge the Governorship. Time to focus on the grass-roots first.


14 posted on 07/01/2009 10:04:23 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: Lancey Howard; Maneesh

Patrick’s biggest threat is in the Dem primary, where he is no shoo-in. We might be able to beat him if he is renominated, but there’s little point when there’s not enough Republicans (nevermind Conservatives) in the legislature to sustain a GOP Gov veto. They’re just a powerless figurehead.


15 posted on 07/01/2009 10:06:12 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: outpostinmass2

16 years of RINO Governors, for which they presided over the final decline and burial of the GOP, with Slick Willard himself putting the corpse in the ground. There was still a viable and competitive party in the ‘90s, not anymore.


16 posted on 07/01/2009 10:07:56 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

That is an excellent point, the only place he could lose is the democrat primary. I was not aware that someone was going to challenge him, it is unlikely for a sitting governor to be primaried. Martha Coakley is the one name that comes to mind.


17 posted on 07/01/2009 12:29:58 PM PDT by Maneesh
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To: Maneesh

He’s going to have to be primaried, lest he end up like Patrick in NY, who would lose to any passable Republican challenger at this point. Tim Cahill, the Treasurer, was the name usually mentioned. Never heard Coakley brought up as a potential candidate. I’ve stated that until the MA GOP is purged of the last cretins keeping the corpse leaning far-left (the party officials themselves, who only “manage” a party that exists on paper), it hasn’t earned the right to go after the bigger fish in the state. Top-down hasn’t worked for the party, as 4 failed RINOs in a row have been a testament to that, it’s got to be from the grassroots-up. When they get back to a 1/4th of the legislature, then they can start making plays, otherwise, there’s no point. Why do we need to have an “R” figurehead Governor ? They’re only good for supermarket openings (and there are so few of those with businesses and whatever else shutting down with leftist mismanagement from coast to coast).


18 posted on 07/01/2009 3:01:20 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

All good points but I just don’t see a conservative GOP ever getting a footing in MA. 60% of the people essentially believe in European style nanny state govt and want nothing to do with a smaller govt. Abortion is religion here so social conservatives have no hop here. The 60% are also pacifist so a strong foreign policy is a non starter as well. What plank would a conservative run on ?

A RINO is useless as you say, I don’t blame the politicians as much. All the libtards keep getting re-elected so that same 60% is pretty happy with the status quo. When 70% voted against the repeal of the income tax recently I lost any small level of hope for change in MA.


19 posted on 07/02/2009 7:15:53 AM PDT by Maneesh
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To: Maneesh; Impy; Clintonfatigued; BillyBoy; darkangel82
I believe a Conservative Republican could get elected Governor (after all, Don Carcieri could do it in RI, and RI isn't terribly different than MA, although RI was (at least in recent decades) not favorably disinclined towards the GOP, although that is on the downslide, but for different reasons). But there's no point to any Republican getting elected Governor as long as they have no real power (and let's face it, if you don't have substantive veto power or the ability to appoint a Senate vacancy, you're practically a figurehead).

I'm not expecting some miraculous turn to the right, but there needs to be a viable Conservative opposition minority that reflects the voting preferences of the state. The state isn't 100% leftist, yet the pols largely are. If we finally purge the leftist guards of the GOP corpse and tell those that have been disconnected (or just plain disgusted) with the political process and get young student activists and older retirees involved, that party could be resurrected. It doesn't serve any state having 90%+ of its elected officials in one party (that wouldn't be good even in a GOP state, because statism, arrogance of power and corruption inevitably seeps in).

I do admit an admiration for how the Dems took over what was once one of the most heavily GOP states in the country (go back to the late 19th century, and the Dems were as shut out of the process as the GOP is today. If you talked to them back then and told them they'd have 100% of the major offices by the start of the 21st century, they'd have thought you were crazy. How they outpaced the GOP in the 1950s-70s when the state officially became a Dem majority state was that they start replacing a calcified Dem apparatus down to the lowest levels with young activists and once they got control, they went after a similarly statist and calcified GOP (where the party was failing to replace old timers with young activists that could carry on to the next generation). They picked off our low-hanging fruit and aggressively grabbed seats with our retirements, and that's how they got to where they are now (and we didn't fight back just as hard, we just kept ceding ground until there was nothing left to cede). There's no reason if we don't use their playbook (but NOT the ideology), we can't score wins. If we keep up with it, by the 22nd century, the GOP might be back as the overwhelming majority again (presuming we still have a country as we do now - but one thing is for sure, if the Conservatives doesn't fight back and use the GOP as the vehicle for change and reform and restoration of sanity, we will lose this country).

20 posted on 07/02/2009 10:18:28 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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