Patrick, Obama campaigns share language of ‘hope’
From The Boston Globe
Of all the things Deval Patrick’s Republican opponent threw at him in last year’s governor’s race, one charge that stuck in his craw was that his speeches were more fluff than substance — that they were, in Patrick’s telling, “just words.” So he devised an artful response.
” ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal’ — just words,” Patrick said at a rally in Roxbury right before Election Day. ” ‘We have nothing to fear but fear itself’ — just words. . . . ‘I have a dream’ — just words. They’re all just words.”
The crowd erupted as it got Patrick’s point about the power of language. But perhaps no one at the rally understood the point better than Barack Obama, who had joined him on stage that night.
Not five months later, Obama, his presidential campaign gaining steam, had this to say about legendary Chicago organizer Saul Alinsky in The New Republic: “Sometimes the tendency in community organizing of the sort done by Alinsky was to downplay the power of words and of ideas when in fact ideas and words are pretty powerful. ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal.’ Those are just words. ‘I have a dream.’ Just words.”
In the midst of his improbable run for office, Obama and his advisers have evidently studied Patrick’s up-from-nowhere victory in Massachusetts and are borrowing themes, messages, and even specific lines for the presidential campaign.
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1 Comment
April 24, 2007 at 2:26 pm
Again, I am inclined to think that candidate message recycling is a not unusual. It is part of what political advisors get paid big bucks to do – if they can get away with it. Moreover, if the public is buying it, WTF. Money well spent, right?
In this instance, the parallels were easier to discern because (a) both candidates are black, and (b) someone – for whatever reason – was looking. I say kudos to the Globe for running the story.
As a former (lifelong) Dem turned Indie voter, what I am troubled by is the absence of scrutiny, particularly of black Democratic candidates, by traditional black media. I suspect that if this issue involved two successful REPUBLICAN candidates who also were black, black media coverage would be far less accommodating.
Hopefully, the black blogosphere will help change that.