The Deval Patrick Daydream Is this the answer for voters seeking a non-socialist non-Biden?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-deval-patrick-daydream-11573777283
There’s fashionably late, and then there’s showing up to a soiree as the dishes are being cleared. Which one is Deval Patrick ? On Thursday the former two-term Governor of Massachusetts joined the Democratic campaign for President. Nothing against the 17 other hopefuls, he said, but they’re selling either “nostalgia” or polarization: “It’s our way—our big idea—or no way.”
There’s something to this analysis. The Democratic war horse in the lead, Joe Biden, looks unsteady. Close behind are a proud socialist, Bernie Sanders, and a furtive one, Elizabeth Warren, both of whom pledge to eliminate private insurance used by some 170 million people. Far back lag the rest: a 30-something mayor, floundering Senators, Andrew Yang.
At least a few Democrats are now wondering if they can order off menu. Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire ex-Mayor of New York, is weighing a 2020 bid. Hillary Clinton, no introduction required, says she is “under enormous pressure from many, many, many people to think about it.” But those late entries are plausible in that Mr. Bloomberg is a billionaire and Mrs. Clinton is universally known.
What’s Mr. Patrick’s case? The daydream is that he could unite the party’s factions. At 63, he’s a decade younger than the average age of the three top contenders. Yet he also has more years and executive experience than the candidate in fourth, Pete Buttigieg. The electorate is increasingly diverse, and Mr. Patrick is a black man who was the first in his family to go to college. As far as we know, his son is not on the payroll of any Ukrainian gas companies.
Mr. Patrick is pitching himself as progressive enough. He said Thursday that he doesn’t support Medicare for All, but he would back a public option in ObamaCare. A wealth tax “makes a lot of sense directionally,” but he’d rather reform the current tax system to kill deductions and “get the rates right.”
He continued: “I don’t think that wealth is the problem. I think greed is the problem. I think we want to encourage prosperity. We want to encourage people to aspire, just like I have, to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, and to move into the middle class and beyond.” Mr. Patrick is upbeat, and he talks about America sunnily, as if he actually likes the place.
Still, Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker are all middle-aged progressives who could be conceivably unifying, yet they’re stuck in single digits. Critics will attack Mr. Patrick’s tenure at Bain Capital, even though he worked in “impact investing.” Worse, he once held a job at Texaco. “What I’ve decided,” Mr. Patrick said, “is that you can’t know if you can break through if you don’t get out there and try.”
OK, but the lineup for next week’s Democratic debate is already set. Qualification for the December showing closes in less than a month, and it requires 4% support in four polls, plus 200,000 unique donors. Late entrants rarely win the nomination, but then we do live in interesting times.
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