Here’s a quiz: Which prominent African-American politician famously said: “The politics of fear is no acceptable alternative to the politics of hope.”

If you answered Barack Obama, you’re wrong …

Just two years after Obama’s now-famous Democratic National Convention speech in Boston where he asked: “Do we participate in a politics of cynicism, or do we participate in a politics of hope” --Deval Patrick uttered the aforementioned phrase in a statement to the press.

Barack Obama went on to serve in the U.S. Senate in 2005, and Patrick was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2006. And while Obama’s impact as a senator is harder to evaluate, Patrick’s already disastrous tenure in the executive branch may serve as a microcosm of things to come if Obama were to be elected president. Regardless of their racial similarities, the politics of hope is not the only thing that the junior Illinois senator and presidential candidate and the then-future Governor of Massachusetts have in common.

Barack Obama’s campaign for the presidency and Deval Patrick’s campaign to become Governor of Massachusetts in 2006 share many remarkable similarities.  And as someone who lived in Red Sox Nation during that campaign, I can attest to how the Deval Patrick playbook is now translating into Obama’s campaign and how that playbook ultimately translates into action or lack there of.

            In 2005, Patrick slowly emerged as a little-known gubernatorial Democratic candidate who gained traction by meeting with individual voters and even speaking at small college classes like at my alma mater Emerson College. In those speeches, Patrick began promoting a grassroots movement in the state that supported his idealistic values in a state that had been governed by Republicans for sixteen years. With two Democratic rivals who had stronger name recognition (one was the state’s Attorney General, the other had unsuccessfully run for Lieutenant Governor four years previous), Patrick built his campaign on young volunteers, grassroots supporters and strong persuasive rhetoric about the politics of possibility.

            In late 2006, because of that campaign, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts seemed to be composed of large blue signs and bumper stickers that had the name Deval Patrick on the top of them and “Together We Can” (his slogan) underneath them. Citizens of the state were standing together to support a candidate whose major claim to fame was his work as Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights for President Bill Clinton.

            In a state that supported John F. Kennedy’s meteoric rise to the presidency, voters were intrigued by “the politics of hope” throughout the gubernatorial race. In the general campaign, several negative ads by the GOP candidate misfired and Patrick easily won the Governorship declaring in his acceptance speech that “This was not just a victory for me. This was not a victory just for Democrats. This was a victory for hope.” He went on to say to his audience that “This has never been my campaign. It has always been yours. “

            Deval Patrick’s anti-incumbent, grassroots-focused, resume-lacking campaign directly mirrors Barack Obama’s presidential campaign (not surprisingly, Barack Obama visited Massachusetts for several well-publicized events for Patrick during the gubernatorial campaign).

            As Deval Patrick ran for office with the backing of grassroots hardcore volunteers to turn the tide against his two better-known Democratic opponents, Barack Obama finds support from a massive network of people who do not accept the ‘inevitability’ of  his stronger Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. As Deval Patrick devalued his lack of a political resume in the campaign, Obama undermines the experiences of his more well-known rivals arguing that experience does not matter if it is not the right kind of experience. As Patrick’s biggest rival was the female Republican Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, Obama’s greatest rival is former Goldwater girl and First Lady Hillary Clinton.

            As Patrick preached grandiose rhetoric about the politics of “Together we Can”, Obama theorizes about the “politics of hope.”

              With the similarities between the two campaigns so blatant, it was not a great surprise (except maybe to Clinton enthusiasts) that Patrick would endorse Obama which he did in late 2007.

            Deval Patrick may have worked for Clinton but he pledged allegiance to the politics of possibility.

            As Patrick said in his endorsement, “I don’t care if the next president is a Washington insider. I care about what’s in his heart. I don’t care whether the next president has experience in the White House. I care whether he understands life in your house.” Aside from the obvious presidential references, Patrick’s speech could have been about the Governor himself and his own campaign. Continued...