Now this is a barometer... "Barack Obama's lead plunges in Massachusettes". Barack Obama's lead over John McCain is plunging in the bluest of blue states-Massachusettes, the home state of two of his strongest Senate supporters-John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. One wonders if this decline in the polls is also a reflection of growing unhappiness with their own Democratic Governor, Deval Patrick. Obama and Patrick share many similarities-including a common campaign manager, David Axelrod. They have used the same rhetorical tropes in their speeches, they often believe in the same policies, they are both young and charismatic liberals who ran on a promise of hope and change. In Patrick's case we have what the New York Sun called today a Petri dish for a scenario in which Barack Obama is President. The Sun's Seth Gittel writes that Patrick's promise of change has remained unfulfilled. A few months ago, the Weekly Standard's Dean Barnett took a less generous view of...(Read Full Post)