Together we con

I found this story interesting because my dad keeps telling me how Obama is just like Gov. Deval Patrick (Mass.) and how that is not a good thing. He says Patrick was an unknown, inexperienced candidate who ran a great campaign, gave inspiring speeches, had the "Yes, we can!" slogan, but now that he's in office, he's in way over his head, has not been able to accomplish anything, and is considered a joke even by his own party. That may be one reason Hillary Clinton won in MA and NH.


Obama Echoes Deval Patrick...Again

The charismatic, brilliant, inspiring black politician came to the stage to address the latest attack from his white female opponent.

"Her dismissive point, and I hear it a lot from her staff, is all I have to offer is words," he said. "Just words.

"'We holds these truths to be self-evident,'" he continued as the crowd began to cheer and applaud, "'that all men are created equal' -- just words. Just words."

The applause increased.

"'We have nothing to fear but fear itself,'" the pol said. "Just words. 'Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.' Just words,'" he said, switching effortlessly from our Founding Fathers to FDR to JFK.

And then, the piece de resistance: "'I have a dream' -- just words," he said.

Barack Obama rebutting Hillary Clinton circa 2008?

Nope. Deval Patrick, ultimately successful Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate, responding to then-Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey in October 2006.

Of course, if you mistook the speech for one from Obama, you can be forgiven -- just this weekend Obama said something quite similar.

"Don't tell me words don't matter," Obama said to Wisconsin Democrats. "'I have a dream' -- just words. 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal' -- just words. 'We have nothing to fear but fear itself' - just words. Just speeches."

Watch Patrick HERE and Obama HERE.

Since last year, observers have been noting that rhetorical similarities between the two candidates with vaguely similar biographies and campaign pitches -- who also share political guru David Axelrod.

"It's a handoff," Axelrod explains in an email. "They're friends and allies. They share a view of politics and often riff off of each other."

Some, including the New York Observer noted that Obama's recent adoption of the "Yes, we can," slogan echoed Patrick's use of it.

"Yes we can reuse slogans," quipped Ben Smith at Politico, noting that a Patrick TV ad from 2006 uses the slogan -- as does an Obama state senate ad from 2004.

And Axelrod says"Yes we can" was Obama's campaign slogan in 2004. (So Obama echoed Patrick who echoed Obama.) ...

And of course Boston talk show host Howie Carr has changed Patrick's "Together we can" to "Together we con" for all the Deval scandals - from upgrading to an expensive Cadillac as his official vehicle last year to the more recent arrest of a top aide for sexually assaulting a 15 year old boy.