Wheels Within Wheels: Did Deval Patrick Enter the NH Primary to Damage Elizabeth Warren?

by Thomas Neuburger

Wheels within wheels. One of the more cogent speculations around Deval Patrick's "entry" into the Democratic primary (actually, just the New Hampshire race) involves his close relationship with what Alex Parene calls "Obama World," the circle of people around Barack and Michelle Obama, like Valerie Jarrett and David Axelrod and others like them.

Why did Deval Patrick, former governor of Massachusetts, re-enter the primary race after having already dropped out? Why did he enter the New Hampshire race but no other? Why did he think he could divest himself of the tar that damaged his late-2018 entry? It is a puzzlement.

Or maybe not. The following explanation, from Alex Parene, depends on two ideas. First, that people in the Clinton circle hate Bernie Sanders with a passion that passes reason (no surprise there), and second, that people in the Obama circle hate Elizabeth Warren with the same intensity (for why, see "'Why Are You Pissing In Our Face?': Inside Warren’s War With the Obama Team").

This puts these two teams in a conundrum when it comes to the 2020 primary, since the one viable candidate each camp relies on to defeat both Warren and Sanders — Joe Biden — looks increasing less viable. Biden could still win (I'll have more on that in a separate piece), but clearly a backup plan is needed by each camp, and each camp needs a different backup plan.

Team Clinton could adopt Elizabeth Warren as their "Stop Sanders" savior, though they haven't yet. But the "Stop Warren" Obama people would never adopt Bernie Sanders. What's left to do? Answer: Force Warren out of the race by (hopefully) fatally damaging her in New Hampshire, an early-primary state in her own back yard.

Alex Parene:

There’s Only One Way the Patrick and Bloomberg Campaigns Make Sense

Democratic Party elders are making plans.

...what should Obama World do if it sees Harris (or Cory Booker, or Julián Castro, both of whom are viewed with favor by this camp) struggling to gain traction? Many of this cohort seem to like Mayor Pete Buttigieg and would find his nomination acceptable. Nevertheless, they surely originally envisioned him as, perhaps, a future Senate candidate, or a running mate at best. It can’t be lost on them that the primary calendar after New Hampshire and Iowa becomes rough sledding for a candidate whose entire base of support is white. Still, they can’t back Warren; Sanders is an unserious option; Biden has perhaps lost it.

So: Enter Deval Patrick. But not to actually win the nomination in the primary process. ...

Patrick cannot possibly expect to enter the race at this late hour and run a normal presidential candidacy designed to accrue a majority of delegates ahead of the convention. (Who is he even hiring to run his campaign? There are a dozen active campaigns already being run by campaign professionals!) He won’t qualify for the debates. He has low national name recognition, hasn’t been fundraising, and his history in the private sector is radioactive. No one in decades has entered the race this late and won any primaries or caucuses. He launched his campaign in time to file for the New Hampshire primary but has already missed filing deadlines in multiple other states.

I am not the first person to suggest this, but Patrick seems to have jumped into the race with a clear purpose in mind: to hurt Warren’s chances in New England. (For those who doubt Obama allies would operate like this, please remember who runs the Democratic National Committee, and why.)

Parene goes on to discuss the possibility that both Patrick and Bloomberg are also entering the primary, if only nominally, for yet another purpose — to put themselves in position to be chosen in a brokered convention. (That's a subject I'll also take up in a separate piece; gaming out the convention is actually not that difficult.)

But let's leave convention considerations for the moment. For now just consider the "tough conversation" that Patrick said he had with Warren prior to his recent announcement.

Why would it have been tough? Perhaps because Warren knew instantly exactly what he was up to — and didn't much like it.
 

Deval For All? Count Me Out

Is someone trying to make a point that there might be candidates as bad-- or worse-- than Status Quo Joe?

Today is the filing deadline to compete in the New Hampshire primary. Depending on which poll you read this week, Bernie, Elizabeth or Status Quo Joe is leading. Bloomberg isn't leading in any polls, perhaps primarily because he isn't being polled. In fact, he isn't even running. Oh, he's running in Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, three of the most reactionary states in the Union, where Trump beat Hillary by 28, 27 and 26 points respectively. The 3 solid Trump electoral states are Super Tuesday states (March 3). No doubt Howard Wolfson, Bloomberg's chief strategist, has a plan. But for now, according to Wolfson, one of politics' most egregious yentas and leakers, that plan does not include New Hampshire, the first primary in the nation-- and a state that, unlike Alabama, Arkansas and Tennessee, actually plays a role in electing Democrats.

No need to file in Iowa. And Bloomberg will likely get a scattering of caucus votes but the only poll that has included Bloomberg there, shows him with the most unfavorable-- by far-- reputation of any Democrat (15% favorable and 48% unfavorable among Democrats for a disastrous net favorability of minus 31). In Monmouth's own words, "Among the 361 likely caucus-goers contacted after he was added to the poll, just one voter selected him as their top candidate choice and only 1% named him as a second pick."

There has been consistent rumor-- also widely thought to be spread by Wolfson-- that Obama recruited Bloomberg to run with one purpose: to muddy up Warren (and Bernie and their progressive agenda). It seems far-fetched to me. Bloomberg has always wanted to be president, doesn't follow anyone's lead-- and that includes Obama-- and as much as he wants to dirty up Warren, Bernie and their agendas, he doesn't need Obama to encourage that. Besides, Obama already has Deval Patrick-- who was in New Hampshire yesterday filing for the primary-- for that.





The former low-key, moderate Massachusetts governor jumped into the conservative lane of the primary yesterday, another Wall Street-friendly Democrat opposing Medicare-for-All and fundamental change. Although never charged with a crime, he was once on the board of ACC Capital Holdings (the parent company of Ameriquest and Argent Mortgage, predatory lenders and big players in the subprime mortgage game). He currently serves as a managing director of Bain Capital. Recall chastising Mitt Romney for working there?

There is always a whiff of corruption around DeVille, as he was affectionately-- and not so affectionately-- known in Massachusetts but he was talking normal political bologna yesterday when he announced. "You can't know if you can break through if you don't get out there and try. I've been waiting for a moment like this my whole life. And by that I don't mean a moment to run for president, but a moment when the appetite for big ideas is big enough for the size of the challenges we face in America."

He slammed the Democrats who have been doing all the heavy lifting so far: "[W]e seem to be migrating to, on the one camp, sort of nostalgia, let's just get rid, if you will, of the incumbent president and we can go back to doing what we used to do. Or, you know, it's our way, our big idea, or no way. And neither of those, it seems to me, seizes the moment to pull the nation together and bring some humility that-- frankly-- we have a lot of ideas, but no one candidate, no one party has a corner on all the best ideas." On the other hand, his shady ties to health-care and drug companies, as the Wall Street Journal noted this morning, "could make him a punching bag for Democratic candidates who support single-payer health care and criticize the pharmaceutical industry."

He's out of sync with Democratic primary voters in several fronts-- another multimillionaire who opposes Medicare-for-All and a wealth tax, he super-serves special corporate interest and expects working families to be happy with the crumbs that fall off the tables of the super-rich like himself and his cronies.

The Latest Corporate Obamist to Be Touted for President by Big New York Media — Deval Patrick

Bain Capital's corporate logo: Vultures, rampant, on a field of bones

Bain Capital's managing director and the Obama circle's choice for next president. "We get the government we deserve in a democracy," Deval Patrick unironically said, according to the original caption (Photograph by John Trotter/MAPS for The New Yorker).

by Gaius Publius

Yet another agent of wealth is being touted as a Democratic Party candidate for president — it seems there's no end of them. This time the candidate is no Mike Bloomberg, with his suspect past, his narcissistic sense of entitlement, and openly limousine lifestyle, but an under-the-radar Democratic governor named Deval Patrick.

Patrick ticks all the boxes. He's loved by the Obama organization, he has that next-Obama feel on the stump, and he's a "moderate" (meaning corporatist) in a year when Third Way organizations are searching hard for a "sounds progressive, serves the donors" candidate to throw against the Donald Trump or Mike Pence wall in 2020.

And now he has the the big New York media pushing his candidacy, firing his big opening salvos for him. Jeffrey Toobin, not a no-name writer, has an absolutely glowing piece about Patrick in The New Yorker. Let's take a look (emphasis mine throughout):

Toobin open this way:

On Election Night last week, Deval Patrick, the former governor of Massachusetts, went out to dinner with his wife, Diane, near their apartment, in Boston’s Back Bay. They propped up their iPads on the table, trying to synchronize their schedules after a hectic couple of months. On weekdays, Patrick had been on the road for his job, as a managing director at Bain Capital, the investment firm founded by his predecessor as governor, Mitt Romney. On weekends, he had travelled to a dozen states, to campaign for Democratic candidates in the midterms, and, in the process, to generate the kind of good will and name recognition that could help him if he chooses to run for President in 2020. Diane, meanwhile, had been winding down her law practice, as a management-side labor lawyer at the major Boston firm Ropes & Gray, where she had recently given up her partnership after working there since 1995. Back at home, after dinner, Patrick took a quick look at the election results, and then turned in early, rising, as is his custom, at dawn, to take stock.

Notice, among the down home details of this warm portrait, these critical facts: Deval Patrick is managing director of Bain Capital. His wife Diane is a labor lawyer, but on the management side, meaning she helps corporations fend off unions.

Toobin clearly doesn't see any of that as a minus, but he should. Bain Capital, worth nearly $100 billion in privately held assets, is an acquirer and destroyer of companies:

In his 2009 book The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Is Destroying Jobs and Killing the American Economy, Josh Kosman described Bain Capital as "notorious for its failure to plow profits back into its businesses," being the first large private-equity firm to derive a large fraction of its revenues from corporate dividends and other distributions. The revenue potential of this strategy, which may "starve" a company of capital, was increased by a 1970s court ruling that allowed companies to consider the entire fair-market value of the company, instead of only their "hard assets", in determining how much money was available to pay dividends. In at least some instances, companies acquired by Bain borrowed money in order to increase their dividend payments, ultimately leading to the collapse of what had been financially stable businesses.

A classic "leveraged buyout" company, a vulture capital operation. Here's what Bain did to Toys 'R' Us in 2018:

Just a few years ago, Toys 'R' Us was an iconic American retailer. Six months ago, it filed for bankruptcy. Two days ago, it announced that all 800 of its American stores, and all 100 of its British ones, are closing or being sold. As many as 33,000 workers could lose their jobs.

What happened to America's biggest toy store?

Simply put, vulture capitalists ate it.

One of those vultures was Bain Capital. Deval Patrick was its managing director, the man in charge, when this occurred.

So why is Jeffrey Toobin writing about him? Maybe because Patrick is much loved by the Obama inner circle:

Patrick would enter the race with one significant distinction: he is a kind of political heir to Barack Obama, and enjoys broad support from people close to the former President. Valerie Jarrett, Obama’s former senior adviser and still a close friend, told me, “Deval would make an outstanding President. He’d make a terrific candidate.” She added, “President Obama and Deval are very much alike in terms of their core values, what drove them into public service, their willingness to lend a hand, the responsibility to give back. I think they share a basic philosophy about what it means to be a good citizen.” Obama and Patrick also have in common roots in Chicago, Ivy League educations, and complicated relationships with largely absent fathers (which both men have chronicled in memoirs that feature youthful pilgrimages to Africa). They espouse a politics of unapologetic idealism, with a largely moderate, center-left orientation. On the stump, both are part teacher and part preacher. “Deval is a very genuine person, a very empathetic person,” David Axelrod, who has been a strategist for Patrick as well as for Obama, told me. “He is a guy who makes people feel comfortable. He’s very principled, you can see that—just like Obama.”

Ignore the adoring prose layered into that paragraph — "They [Obama and Patrick] espouse a politics of unapologetic idealism, with a largely moderate, center-left orientation. On the stump, both are part teacher and part preacher" — and focus on the endorsements. Patrick's "unapologetic idealism" is just not true; both Obama and Patrick are corporatists who serve wealth first. Being "part teacher and part preacher" just means he, like Obama, is a good Elmer Gantry.

As for Patrick being "principled," indeed he is; he's principled "just like Obama," though I'm sure Toobin doesn't mean this as ironically it sounds to any real student of Obama.

Most of the piece is like that — painfully praising, and painfully revealing in a way unintended by Toobin. For example, here's Toobin on why Patrick was opposed to Brett Kavanaugh's nomination:

That afternoon, Patrick and I sat down at a diner in Asbury Park. In Washington, Brett Kavanaugh was being confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court, and Patrick explained his opposition to the nomination. “Some of it is very personal,” he said. ... In 1993, Patrick’s brother-in-law was convicted of raping Patrick’s sister, and Diane has talked openly about being a victim of domestic abuse during her first marriage. “I can confirm that the experience of not being believed or having the experience not taken as seriously or treated as seriously is extremely painful,” he said. He spoke with sorrow and emotional distance, and [Toobin couldn't bring himself to write "but"], notably, didn’t denounce Kavanaugh directly, or Trump for choosing him.

Note in this passage the compelling verbal portrait of a man whose sister had been raped, speaking "with sorrow and emotional distance," followed immediately by the lack of condemnation of either the rapist, the radical who nominated him, or the destructive agenda the Kavanaugh court will enact. Toobin's personal access to Patrick ("That afternoon, Patrick and I sat down at a diner in Asbury Park"), his front-and-center self-placement as the writer picked to roll out Valerie Jarrett's front-runner, also stands out. The piece is a paint job, and deaf to its ironies.

None of this means that Patrick won't be a force to be reckoned with in 2020. Both Toobin and David Axelrod attest to Patrick's preacher power on the stump. Toobin: "Soon after Patrick started to campaign, Axelrod got a phone call from his sister Joan, who lives in Massachusetts ... “She had never done anything like this before, but she gets on the phone and says she’s just met Deval and he is incredible. ‘He’s the real deal. You have to come here and work for him.’” ... Patrick beat Reilly by twenty points in the primary."

As a sleeper, Patrick is well positioned to surprise. Be prepared to find him in the running as the race evolves, with both money and power behind him and yes-we-can media angels at his shoulder.

Toobin, closing on a note of swelling church-organ glory, emphasizes Patrick's chosen theme, "hope and kindness":

"It struck me that something is so wrong when we learn to shout our anger and whisper our kindness,” he went on. “We have got to learn to stop being ashamed of being kind." In the church and elsewhere, Patrick left a message of hope and kindness. The question, for Patrick and everyone else, is whether there is a wider audience for it in this fierce and broken political moment.

Is there a place for "hope and kindness" in this "fierce and broken moment"? Let's ask the broken employees of Toys 'R' Us before seeking kindness from Deval Patrick, their destroyer.

GP