Last night, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick endorsed his old friend, Barack Obama, for president. And as he’s wont to do, he tried getting all sentimental, urging voters to look past Obama’s slim government history and straight into his heart:

For once, I want a campaign that’s not about the candidate, but about us.

Not about a resumé, but about character. Not about connections or convenience, but about conviction. Not about smearing the competition, but about lifting us all up. Not about the right and the left, but about right and wrong. Not about yesterday, but about tomorrow.

First off: For once? For twice, maybe. We’ve already seen a campaign all about “not about the candidate, but about us” — and it was Deval Patrick’s.

But more importantly: Outside of the “lifting us all up” bit, isn’t this exactly how Democrats portray the American people being snookered into voting for George W. Bush? He’s all folksy and back-slapping, talkin’ ’bout character while his more-qualified opponents — take your pick between John McCain, Al Gore and John Kerry — tried talking policy? And how now that he’s in office, he’s blinded by conviction and his personal sense of right or wrong, not by facts and arguments? It’s nice rhetoric, Deval; it sounds just lovely and idealistic, and I like both you and Obama, but isn’t this stuff, when it comes right down to it, what we don’t want in a president?