Charlie Baker Hits a Homer – Finally

Congratulations to Charlie Baker!

Baker is the GOP candidate for governor of Massachusetts. He is a very competent manager, who has often been misunderstood – because he has misunderstood. He has misunderstood the messages he gives.

When he talks about his family, for example, he preaches to the GOP converted. They share his family values and thus favor him for being a stable, loyal, caring family man.

Unfortunately, the message he gives to those NOT converted is not, “Wow, what a guy!” No. They hear, “He’s criticizing me for not having a family” or “Big shot. Thinks he’s better than me” or other similar negative messages.

This is because Baker has not understood that the huge part of the electorate he must reach and convince he is for them are NOT necessarily family people. They’ve never had or never valued having traditional families. These include single people, feminists, gays, and African Americans who have children but not traditional, Charlie Baker type, families.

What he has to do is figure out how to address these voters, without losing his base. As soon as he gets this, he’ll do it. He’ll craft his sound bites to do it, he’ll phrase his answers to reporters to do it, and he’ll be able to debate his eventual Democratic opponent to do it. This is because he is competent.

Well, in the Boston Herald of October 16, 2013, he finally hit a homer. He criticizes Massachusetts Democratic governor Deval Patrick, an Obama loyalist, for something Patrick cannot change without undermining Obama’s strategy of letting government services disintegrate during the shutdown. For example, Baker criticizes Patrick for not showing leadership like other governors, who used state money to keep some Federal services going. Since Patrick is paralyzed in this regard, by his need to follow Obama, Baker can criticize him without concern of Patrick’s changing course.

Nice, Charlie, finally.