As some of you may recall, Michael Dukakis, when governor of Massachusetts, made a big point of showing how he identified with the little guy. One piece of evidence, retailed during his campaigns for the gubernatorial spot and then even for the presidency in 1988, was that he rode the "MTA" rather than a car to work. Do you remember the sixties and seventies song about Charlie on the MTA? Will he ever return? Oh, will he ever return? One of the supposed benefits for Mike to have ridden the "T" was for him to have had opportunities to talk with other passengers. But, as no doubt many of you will understand, Dukakis wasn't exactly a conversationalist. So he was left with the ordinary image without any of its dividends. He had another big problem with the little guy picture. When he was photographed with a big helmet in an enormous tank. No one wanted that small a president. I go back to Governor Dukakis and his slight to the automobile. But only to refer to the present governor of the Bay State and his fondness for big cars. In fact, Deval Patrick seems to like very big cars, fancy cars, in fact. And that is in contrast not only to Dukakis but to Mitt Romney who as governor was driven in, I think, an Oldsmobile. (This is in contrast to his father, George, who was CEO of American Motors, which produced the first really small car in the U.S., also in contrast to GM, Ford, and Chrysler.) Well, Deval Patrick likes a Cadillac, and a chauffeur driven one, at that. A limousine. There are other indications that he is a big spender on himself from the public purse. An inauguration that went on for days and days ... and then another day or two, besides. Here's an column by Brian McGrory in The Boston Globe giving some of the details and the columnist's views of these expenditures. There is, of course, an irony to all this. And it is that as a candidate against a pluperfect awful GOP opponent Deval promised much that he cannot now deliver. No surprise, really. This is the fate of many Democrats. A little bit of unseemly glitz is one of Patrick's weaknesses. I pointed this out (here and here) during the fall elections campaign. He and his family have a lot of private debt. But there are limits to what you can with public debt, and fancy and frivolous stuff make for good items to cut.