Keller @ Large: Patrick For President? Good Luck
BOSTON (CBS) - Gov. Patrick told an interviewer Thursday that "a lot of people" have asked him to think about running for president.
Really!
Of what country?
Just kidding, governor, don't get mad.
But seriously, what is it in the water here that makes every moderately-successful political figure picture themselves in the Oval Office?
OK, Ted Kennedy had an excuse, he was a Kennedy brother and running for president was just what Kennedy brothers of that generation did.
But consider the litany that has followed: Michael Dukakis, the late Paul Tsongas, John Kerry, Mitt Romney - twice! And maybe a third time!
All good men in their own ways, but none of them especially distinguished or thought of as presidential material by their peers.
But here in our little Garden of Eden we do have a tendency to think that our ideas are the best, that we were first to think any serious thought worth thinking, and that what we've created here ought to be a role model for the lower 49.
I see that Gov. Patrick looks back on his eight years in office as a period of notable managerial success, and while he has served honorably and, at times, effectively, that glowing self-assessment is certainly debatable. It was accomplished with the benefit of an all-Democratic legislature, a benefit no future Democratic president is likely to have.
And if the governor sees himself following in the current president's footsteps, he might want to check the rock-bottom job-approval numbers those footsteps have led to.
But a man's gotta dream, right?
Good luck, governor. It certainly won't be bad for my business if you go for it.
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