Gov. Patrick, STILL shilling for Sen. Obama.
They share life trajectories and campaign messages. To try to make sure they share the same success, Governor Deval Patrick will stump for Barack Obama in churches and town hall meetings across South Carolina next weekend.
His very presence could be a rebuttal to black voters' doubts that an African-American candidate can win in a majority-white electorate, a former Patrick adviser said yesterday.
"If Barack had won New Hampshire, like the polls said, then probably that would be enough" to reassure voters that Obama can win the Democratic nomination and then the White House, said John Walsh, chairman of the Massachusetts Democratic Party and Patrick's former campaign manager. "But now there's this, 'Maybe he can, maybe he can't.' "
Patrick is one of the country's most successful African-American politicians - he is the nation's only black governor and just the second elected since Reconstruction - and "who he is could really help," Walsh said.
Patrick is emerging as one of the Illinois senator's most visible campaigning surrogates. In Iowa, he campaigned by Obama's side, charming audiences who didn't know him with his up-from-poverty life story and message of hope that neatly dovetailed with Obama's. In New Hampshire, Patrick knocked on doors and spoke at house parties on Obama's behalf. And on political shows on CNN and other national cable networks, he has spoken glowingly of Obama. They share a common political vision and vocabulary, which enhances Patrick's effectiveness as a surrogate.
"In Governor Patrick, you've got somebody who believes in the same ideals the senator does, so he's a very persuasive surrogate to deliver that message," Doug Rubin, Patrick's chief of staff and formerly his senior campaign strategist, said yesterday.
UPDATE: More from Wizbang, Matt Margolis, the Globe and the Herald.
