The Globe‘s Adrian Walker thinks he knows exactly when things started to go downhill for Gov. Deval Patrick:

It isn’t hard to pinpoint the day Patrick lost control of his image. It was the infamous afternoon in 2008 that the Legislature voted down casino gambling and the governor was nowhere to be found to talk about it. He was in New York selling a book deal, and giving rise to the idea that he really isn’t that into this job.

It’s an intriguing notion. Is Patrick’s governing style (or lack thereof) a bigger liability than his policies? If so, he didn’t help himself last month by admitting that he considered not seeking a second term because of the “wear and tear” he’s gone through on Beacon Hill.

Ironically, he might never have become governor in the first place if his chief rival for the Democratic nomination in 2006, Tom Reilly, hadn’t voiced a similar kind of squeamishness about what really makes things run on Beacon Hill, infamously saying, “Politics are not my strong suit.”