By Scott Helman, Globe Staff |
April 16, 2007Of 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.
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The similarities between Patrick and Obama,
who have known each other for more than a decade, are obvious: Both are idealistic African-American leaders who came of age after the Civil Rights movement. Both have Chicago roots, a Harvard Law degree, and a gift for appealing to both blacks and whites.
Their political likeness runs deeper. Both believe that people long for a new dawn of postpartisan, hopeful, and optimistic public leadership. Both staked their fates on grass-roots activism and fund-raising. Both campaign on supplanting cynicism with citizenship.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/04/16/patrick_obama_campaigns_share_language_of_hope/?page=1">link
Obama, Patrick Collaboration Noted Specifically By Globe Back In April 2007Similarly, there wasn't any indication back in April of last year that this matter was any cause for concern or complaint. State Democratic Party chair Phillip W. Johnston spoke of the two men with admiration: "We all said that we could have closed our eyes when Obama spoke
it could have been Deval. To us it was a similar kind of message. It's a message that transcends partisan politics."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/02/18/obama-patrick-collaborat_n_87236.html">more edited: to fix link