Buzzfeed does a piece on the former governor of Massachusetts who seems to have a good many Obama campaign and former staff people waiting to spring into action to get him going fast a run for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2020….
The piece points out that Patrick though?
Does NOT have the fire in belly that one needs to make the arduous trek for the nomination and the Presidency ….
This while Joe Biden leads the early field and Kamala Harris has leapfrogged past Elizabeth Warren as the media flavor of the mouth….
…..if some of the top alumni of Barack Obama’s campaigns and administration had their way, Patrick would be the candidate taking that Obamaesque message into the 2020 presidential campaign.
The brain trust that created the roadmap for Obama’s election has long seen Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts and longtime friend of the former president, as a transcendent political talent. Several former senior Obama administration and campaign officials would be ready to support a Patrick presidential campaign on Day 1, people familiar with the matter told BuzzFeed News.
“I think everyone’s excited,” said one former senior Obama administration official.
David Axelrod, architect of Patrick’s 2006 governor’s race and Obama’s 2008 campaign, is intrigued by a potential Patrick 2020 campaign, said two former Obama administration sources. So is David Simas, CEO of the Obama Foundation and former aide to both Obama and Patrick, one source added. Valerie Jarrett, the close Obama ally, is barely containing her own excitement about Patrick’s possible candidacy at small events with friends. Eric Holder, the former attorney general and close Obama friend, told reporters on a recent visit to New Hampshire that Patrick fits the kind of profile and leadership style he’s looking for in a candidate, if he doesn’t run himself.
Patrick’s supporters and friends this summer started the Reason to Believe PAC, set up in a way that seems designed to help root Patrick on as he works through his decision, and to give people excited about the chance that he might run a place to channel their energy. The PAC has already pulled in hundreds of thousands of dollars, more than similar committees for other possible 2020 candidates.
“There’s not some secret plan that some people know about,” a Patrick aide said.
But a half dozen people involved with Patrick’s informal discussions were loath to prognosticate about what Patrick will ultimately decide, when the word from on high is to be patient. They said Patrick’s decision felt like a toss-up.
Charles Krupa / AP
Obama and Patrick depart Air Force One at Logan Airport in Boston, March 5, 2014.
Patrick is enjoying life as a husband, patriarch of his immediate and extended family. That is to say that, while he does not yet know if he wants the presidency, people who know him well say he does not need it. People who need the presidency, the ones who have been thinking about it their whole lives, don’t behave as Patrick has over the last several years….
I good long November 2018 piece about Deval Patrick in the New Yorker.…