Memo to Baker: This popularity can’t last forever

[unhappycamper]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/10/08/memo-baker-this-popularity-can-last-forever/Qj5P6vCVpGGDtDAaxZhWsL/story.html



Six Massachusetts governors gathered outside the Statehouse in Boston for a group photo in 2006. They are (from left) William Weld, then governor-elect Deval Patrick, Michael Dukakis, Jane Swift, Paul Cellucci, and Mitt Romney.

Memo to Baker: This popularity can’t last forever
By Frank Phillips Globe Staff
October 09, 2015

Governor, you seem to be defying political gravity. Though you won the governor’s office by only a slim margin, polls show you sustaining unprecedented favorable ratings as you wrap up the final months of your first year in office.

But there is a shelf life to high poll numbers, and governors are often the first to feel the wrath of the public’s unrest and frustration. The questions for you are: When does that happen, how hard do you get hit, and how well can you and your political team manage the storm?

History shows a quick, stormy downturn can slide into uncontrollable chaos. The state’s political history is littered with figures who crashed and burned, some tumbling from the sort of poll numbers you have over just a matter of a few months.

In fact, Charlie Baker, you were there, banging around the State House hallways as a young, bushy-tailed advocate for conservative, no-new-tax policies when Governor Michael Dukakis went off to the presidential trail after a landslide reelection in 1986. Remember how long that lasted? He returned to a brutal political backlash that still haunts his legacy. He left office a hugely unpopular figure.