In his first venture into the national political scene, Governor Deval Patrick has agreed to appear at a televised presidential debate tomorrow night to introduce the eight Democratic candidates.
Patrick, just six months in office, will take center stage at Howard University in Washington, D.C., to spend close to five minutes on prime time to give some brief remarks and then present each of the eight candidates.
Okay, we're good so far... this is news worthy, interesting... so, I wonder what the next sentence is going to be?
His prominent role is clearly a signal that he and his political advisers want to make an initial step into the bigger world of national politics, capitalizing on the attention he has already received as the nation's only African-American governor.Alert, Alert, Alert... the Shark has officially been jumped. "Clearly?" Stepping into the bigger world?
Massachusetts... Just because we have a politician who actually does something outside our great Commonwealth, it doesn't mean he's jumping into the horse race. Deval Patrick is not running for President and won't be for a very long time (if ever). Personally, I hope he'll have great success in this state - something he's cementing with his actions and goals already - but we're talking at least 2012, and if we make it to that point, he's given his due.
We don't need to take Patrick on the national stage and turn that into something more than it already is. Patrick isn't exactly new to the rest of the 49 states, given his previous position in President Clinton's administration. He's just been rediscovered. He has an important progressive vision that should be pushed across the country. It's nice to see a Governor who actually has the courage to stand for his convictions; the three current Presidential Candidates have something to learn from him. Furthermore, given the environment the debate will be taking place in, it makes perfect sense for the nation's only African American governor to be able to talk - and hopefully inspire - people for a few minutes.
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2 comments:
I for one hope he stays put for awhile. This whole Massachusetts-as-springboard thing is getting pretty annoying.
Well, we've got him for at least the first full term - which is basically four years. I'm not even thinking about anything beyond that, at this point, because there's plenty of work to do now. I doubt Patrick's planning anything beyond that now, politically speaking, either.
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