Deval, JT, Monks and Lefties

Our Governor and Lieutenant Governor likely telegraphed the next six weeks' tone today at their South End rally. The let's-finish-what-we-started theme continued, but there was more.

They're good at their version of a Vegas act (no nudies though). It was a lot like the April kick-off for their campaign at English High. Political Director Tito Jackson is a fine emcee, with imposing physical presence, powerful voice and a cheerleader's enthusiasm. He warmed the crowd of maybe 500 or 600 (thereby killing time as Tim Murray and Deval Patrick glad-handed at the nearby jazz festival on Columbus). A half dozen activist supporters heaped the praise on in short bits.

Murray did his super-sincere recitation of the administration's primary accomplishments. He was followed by a wrinkled lad (my age, so I can write that) named James Taylor. He didn't sing and wasn't sweet. He wore his Sox cap and spoke as a true progressive about continuing the reforms and savvy recession remedies that are well and provably underway.

As in JP five months ago, the charming and oratorically strong Patrick capped the afternoon. He went three quarters through his 15 minutes or so before taking on opponents Charlie Baker and Tim Cahill.

Amusingly in an elegant payback to Baker's lumping him with Cahill in debates and speeches, Patrick yoked them. They are the talkers; he and Murray are the doers. They want to give tax cuts regardless of the people who will lose jobs, the necessary increases in local and property taxes, and the decreases in services like fire fighting. He set that up with some nice rhetoric about being a taxpayer himself, thus understanding the simple appeal of reducing taxes, but...

We can likely expect six weeks of they say v. we do (and have done, with specifics).

Monk Note: Oh, and for the monks in the heading, I wasn't the only baldy there. A saffron-robed contingent of as I heard it Laotian monks from Lowell arrived to support Murray and Patrick. They were part of another nice parallel with the Berklee Jazz Festival. My wife and I attended both and noticed the real diversity that is so often lacking in the neighborhood-centric Boston. Old, young, numerous races and cultures, people in wheelchairs and with walkers, students in pretentious rags, others in sun dresses or even little black dresses...both the festival and rally appealed to a remarkable range.