Last week Governor Deval Patrick took "personal days" as the casino plan he had been pitching for six months was going down in flames. Today the Associated Press reveals that during that time Patrick was out of state pitching an autobiography to New York publishers.

This is another public relations blunder for the governor, whose political problems were laid out on the front page of the New York Times yesterday. Though the debate over casinos was already clearly stacked against Patrick, leaving for personal business matters during the biggest legislative moment of his short career is terrible messaging. How committed is Patrick to the Commonwealth?

The Patrick-Barack Obama connection has been much discussed, and Patrick is proposing to write something along the lines of "`Barack Obama's first book'"--Dreams from My Father.

We'd be happy to read his memoirs--Milton Academy sounds like an interesting place--but when does he plan on writing them? We've had an absentee governor with bigger things in mind recently, but running the Bay State well should be time-consuming. Losing his next election would free up some space in Patrick's schedule.