Governor Deval Patrick (D-Mass.), appearing today on the NBC news program, Meet the Press, was already sounding a bit too conciliatory towards his Republican debating opponent, Governor John Kasich (R-Ohio), when Patrick made a serious blunder, calling the Democratic President Barack Obama "De Pression" instead of "the President".
Answering a question about Obama's failure to get a jobs bill passed through the US Congress, and especially through the openly hostile Republican House, Patrick explained:
"Frankly, no executive in government can do their job without the partnership of a legislature. That's been true in Massachusetts. That's been true in (Kasich's) Ohio. The President needs that partnership here. De Pression—the President—has bucked the trend. He's turned job losses into job gains. That's important."
Despite Patrick's attempt to spin out of the rhetorical ditch he has just crashed into by calling Obama—"De Pression"—Patrick in fact was already sounding less like an Obama ally and more concerned with not getting into a public fight with his Republican gubernatorial colleague, Kasich.
Both Patrick and Kasich noted they were amused that Meet the Press host David Gregory had decided to match the two against one another debate-style, something they said they had not been told about ahead of time. It was clear that that both governors were making great efforts not to say anything negative about each other, and were only directing negative comments towards the two opponents in the presidential campaign, Mitt Romney and Barack Obama.
While Patrick repeatedly criticized Mitt Romney's tenure as governor of Massachusetts., including ranking poorly in job creation, he nevertheless agreed with Kasich when the Ohio governor accused Obama of creating an environment of "uncertainty", where businesses were afraid to hire people.
Kasich said this was a chief cause of the employment slowdown, and the increase in the unemployment rate to 8.2%, reported in Friday's employment figures from the Labor Department.
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