A third element of Patrick’s platform is job creation in the state in this time of economic crisis. Massachusetts is currently the second-leading state in terms of economic growth, according to Patrick, in part, he says, due to local job creation programs.

KEEP HOPE ALIVE?

Patrick was the dark horse candidate in 2006, and despite a grim national outlook, he refutes claims that there is a pervasive sense of disappointment with the Democratic Party.

“I think that I hear that from pundits and pollsters, but if I’d listened to pundits and pollsters four years ago, I wouldn’t be in this job,” Patrick says. “I think that what is at stake in this election is a choice of values, whether we’re going to be about generational responsibility or whether we’re going to return to the slogans and cliches that sound good but frankly are the reason we are in this national economic mess to begin with.”

Boston Mayor Democrat Thomas M. Menino is also campaigning for Patrick, but his endorsement on Saturday morning is measured.

“For some of us who are married, do you always agree with your husband or wife?” Menino asks the audience. “I don’t either. Same with the governor, we don’t always agree with him either, right? But you know something? He’s the best thing we have. He cares about you.”

Patrick has not shied away from negative campaigning.

“Charlie Baker’s answer to unemployment is to put 5,000 more people out of work and to push 12,000 people off of unemployment insurance benefits in this economy, and I’m not making it up,” Patrick says. “I think we can do better than that because I think we are better than that.”

But Patrick’s goal is still fundamentally the same as it was in his Milton days. In a response to a question about race, he says that he seeks to unify, not divide.

“What I’m focusing on is how we lift everybody,” Patrick says, “not how we tear each other down, not what our differences are.”