Patrick goes from debate to 'Doonesbury'

Campaign surrogate, debate subject, and now cartoon strip character. What could be next for Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick? A Cabinet post, perhaps.

As the phenomenon known as Barack Obama surged into sight of the Democratic presidential nomination, Patrick stumped for him in places as far-flung as Iowa and South Carolina, voiced his talking points on national cable TV shows, and emerged as one of Obama's most visible -- and audible -- backers.

In last week's CNN/Univision debate in Texas, Hillary Clinton mentioned Patrick by name to accuse Obama of borrowing too liberally from the governor's speeches. Obama responded by saying that it was silly to accuse him of political plagiarism since Patrick himself had urged him to use his words about the importance of words.

Garry Trudeau has set this week's "Doonesbury" strip in a fictional college class about Obama's speeches, which even Clinton concedes are inspiring and uplifting. Patrick appears in today's installment.

"Don't tell me that words don't matter," the professor quotes Obama saying. "Here Obama obviously samples a riff from occasional collaborator Deval Patrick...A riff that is itself a mash-up of other unattributed samples!" The prof then assigns students to identify the original sources for each line.

Patrick is among the increasing number of former Clinton acolytes who are supporting Obama, some of whom could be expected to be part of an Obama administration if he wins the White House. Patrick served as an assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton White House.