He now realizes his opposition to the tax rollback was a mistake. The Patrick plan of pulling the progressives into the tent to win the democratic nomination and achieve name recognition was a textbook political success. But he didn’t realize that the issues would be so narrow that the tax rollback may now decide the election. Reilly’s ads which distinguish the candidates must be hurting Patrick’s internal polls , because The Globe indicates that Patrick may now back The tax rollback
.If the story is a bit accurate , he probably realizes that he needs to flip around his position for any chance to win. Obviously , for a lot of reasons this would be a desperate move on his part. I am also not sure if his progressive supporters are very excited about this potential flip flop so late in the game.
Really, this is an example of what happens if you just read the headlines in the newspaper; you might as well not even bother looking at the paper. The story under the headline quoted Patrick as saying,
This is not anything different than what he has said before. The Globe just tried to spin it into something it was not.
AND Mr. Patrick has been saying that for more than a year. He just doesn’t attach a gimmicky equation to the concept, à la Gabrieli.
This has been pretty consistent, though his focus over the last few months has been his opposition in the near term.
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I was wondering when the press would notice that he hasn’t ever ruled out a future decrease.
The previous 3 posts make the appropirate factual points. As for the larger charge of panic in regard to Reilly’s doings, I’d think that the story on which a reasonable spectator might focus is that–big, front page–piece detailing when our Tribune of the Plebs first received documents on St. Fleur’s finances. Let me put it to you this way: if you could be a fly on the wall in any candidate’s headquarters this morning when the Globe landed on the front stoop this morning, where would you go if you wanted to hear the sh*t hit the fan? I think we all know that wouldn’t be Patrick’s headquarters. Happy spinning to you, though.
And try reading David’s post on this topic. Level heads will prevail, we can hope.